Records of lost history
by Kurogems1208
Summary: Time can bury, but never delete history. Even if the place has long gone, it remained fresh in the mind of the person who witnessed its end...
1. Chapter 1

'A lost soul in the middle of crisis. A lost soul with nothing more to lose. A lost soul never existed in the world. A lost soul... who can change everything'

* * *

Place: Gamindustri Graveyard's Entrance

Time: 11:30

*CRACK!*

Sounds of thunder woke him up from the darkness. He opened his eyes, to see a purple sky, filled with dark clouds and lightning. Strokes appeared here and there, hitting the ground and turning what they touched to ashes. Creatures with wings flew over him, looking for whatever before descending down and finding further in the mess around.

He raised his left arm up and rubbed his eyes with his fingers, before panicking and pulling the arm out to see its condition: only pure white of the bone there, no blood, no muscle, no nothing. He was planning to shout in afraid, before the memories of the past reappeared in his mind. With that, he managed to calm down, as he sat up and looked at his left arm again. Despite only bone was there, it was moving like normal human's arm, each of the bone working exactly like how it should be. Even the joints wouldn't turn anywhere further than a human arm would be allowed to. Even without the nerve system, he can still feel the cold breeze washing through the arm.

He then turned to his right arm, to see that it's normal, if not counting the numerous scars and stitches on it. Every single one of them was tainted in dried blood, and some of them even leaked out fresh blood as well. If the memories haven't resurfaced, he would have been scared out of his mind. Though, the fingers would twitch now and then, signaling that he's still feeling uneasy of those memories.

He then looked down to observe his outfit. His white shirt had spots of tainted red all over the place, along with several cuts at the end of the hem. His black trousers had darker spots as well, telling him that it's blood. His shoes, luckily, didn't seem to be affected by it, but the color has been turned to grey in some spots.

He noticed something inside of his chest pocket of his shirt, as he reached for it and pulled it out. It's a piece of chocolate, being wrapped by a small sachet. Suddenly his stomach growled like it's telling him to eat it. Complying to its desire, he opened it and put the piece inside of his mouth, chewed and savored the sweetness before swallowing it down. It wouldn't satisfy his hunger much, but at least it's something. Something... that could keep him alive.

After that little snack, he put the sachet back to the pocket, then stood up and wandered his eyes to the surrounding area. Broken pieces of machines, weapons, armours, destroyed vehicles... none of them was usable, and some of them still emitted the last spark of life before turning off for eternity. The place looked like a cyclone of destruction just passed through this place. He then winced at the smell as he breathed in: burnt oil, rusty metal, burning ion in the air... and the smell of the flesh blood. And there's a trail of it.

He took a first step with his first leg... and nearly fell face-first to the ground. Remembering what happened to him, he stood straight up and continued the walk more carefully. Following the trail, he saw less machine and more blood. And then, here came the first human, or a corpse if that busted head could tell him much. The body was not in the better conditions, with wounds of claws over it. Not letting that sway his mind, he walked and found more corpses, with bites wounds and cuts signalling the last moment before life left their bodies. Monsters of all kinds were around as well, being wolves, bears, tigers, and some that looked like they have gone through some kind of disgusting evolution and mutation.

Sound of bloodied cough caught his attention, and he immediately rushed to a burnt tree, where a person in a purple military uniform was lying there. The below half of his body was gone, blood and guts spilt out of the large hole. He couldn't see the person's face due to the helmet, but he knew the person was in immense pain, and he got only a few more minutes before his soul abandoned his body. He slowly approached the person, but he stopped when he saw the pistol in that person's right hand pointed at him. None took another move, as they entered into an eye-staring contest...

"DOGOO!" That snapped their head to the direction of the voice, to see a pink blob, with dog ears and mouth, being chased by a vicious looking wolf. Seeing the blob's going to be the predator's meal, the injured man, ignoring all of his current conditions, rushed to the chase. When the wolf opened its mouth and tried to bite the blob, he used his bone arm to punch its chin, smashing its jaw and shutting the mouth in a painful way. As the wolf backed up slowly and snarled at its opponent, the man pulled out a pair of sew scissors from his trousers' pocket and took a defending stance, with the pointy facing the wolf. The predator roared and lunged itself at him, who responded by dodging the deadly swings while slashing on the wolf's body with his rusty weapon. After about a minute of running around, the wolf has tired itself without being able to strike the cripple man, but all of his attacks were nothing but bug bites to the wolf as well. Then, a bullet flew through the air and hit the wolf right at its right eye, causing it to roar in pain. One tick of distraction was all the man needed as he ran up to the wolf, stabbed the remain eye, then stabbed as hard as possible through its skull, cutting its brain, and ended the life of the predator.

Pulling the scissors out and wiping the blood on the fur of the corpse, the man looked around to try and find the blob, to see it hiding behind another tree next to the pathway. When it found out the fight ended, it jumped happily in place before slamming itself into the man's stomach, making him fall on his back. Clearly surprised, but not unwelcoming, he patted the head of the creature to calm it down, before bringing him to the near dead person.

When he reached the soldier, the pistol has been placed aside, and the helmet has been taken out to reveal the person's face. The soldier then started speaking: "With a pair of small scissors, you actually managed to kill it. Impressive." The cripple man didn't say a word, as he knelt down and observed the wound. The soldier then asked him: "Can you fix me up?" A head shake was his answer. "Figure. *Cough violently, more blood spilt out of his mouth* Can you do me a favor?" The man turned his face away a bit, then turned back and nodded. The soldier then pushed the helmet to him. "It contained the important data that could turn the tile of this slaughter. Please, head to the city and give this to my general. And also..." After the man has received the helmet, the soldier pulled out a torn picture from his chest pocket and a small red box. "Find the girl and give her this box and the picture. You don't need to understand..." The man, after seeing the picture, used his hands and made a heart. The soldier then laughed. "So you did understand... tell me, what's your name?" The man pulled out a paper and showed it to the man. "...Kuro, huh? My name is John. Sorry for pointing the gun to you earlier. You did scare me with that face of yours." The man nodded understandably. The pupil of the soldier's eyes started to lose focus. "My time is up... Return safe, young man... And I hope whatever did that to your face and your arm will die in a world of pain." And with that, the life of the soldier vanished before his eyes.

... A silence moment later, the cripple man used his hand to close the dead soldiet's eyes, then yanked the chain around the soldier's neck. It contained tags of this one's identity. 'Jonathan. First Lieutenant.' The man read it in his mind, ignoring the number. The blob sniffed on the man's right hand, as he patted it to lessen its sadness. Then, he wrapped the pistol and checked the magazine. '12 left.' He then stood up and put the helmet on his head to free his hands. Though, he accidentally opened the system in the helmet. A bit of surprise, he tapped on a random button on the helmet, and it opened a channel...

"Alpha One-Nine, this is HQ. What happened to your squad?" A girl's voice was heard from the other side. The man was a bit surprised, but he calmed down immediately and turned his face with the helmet to the corpse of the dead soldier. The girl gasped in surprise, but then ordered: "Identify yourself."

He was planning to not say anything. However... "Kuro... helmet... contained data... end the slaughter..."

He spoke, for the first time, as his voice hollowed through the air, scaring both the blob and the woman. Though, the later collected herself before asking: "Where were you?" The man took a look around, before walking to the pathway and turning to one end of the road. "You are facing the direction. I will ask to send..."

"Don't." The man interrupted. "Dangerous... will be fine alone..."

"... Are you sure?" The girl asked back in worry. From her perspective, the camera moved up and down, signalling a nod. "Be careful. The monsters have become too vicious. If you can outrun them, then it's good. If not, try to hide and please, call for help if things turned dire."

Another nod, and he turned off the helmet. With that, the glass reflected his face. His hair was short and black, with blood drops here and there. The face, which scared the dead soldier before, had a half left of complete white skull and no eyeball. For the right, the skin was pale and grey, with his black eye losing pupil and multiple stitches and scratches on the face.

The blob nudged into his leg for attention. For the first time, he smiled and picked the blob up, and walked to the place where he could finish what he has promised to the dead soldier...


	2. Chapter 2

'The lost soul had made a promise. He would make sure he did the right things to deliver it to the right people.'

* * *

Place: Near Planeptune's East Entrance Checkpoint

Time: 13:00

"Dogoo..." The little blob whimpered, and Kuro patted it to comfort it. Currently they're hiding under a big green tree, despite it being in a dark territory, to avoid the Phoenixes flying over their heads. With the pistol in his left hand, and recently recovered shotgun, he prepared his mind to deal with any situations thrown at him.

Though, he's clearly in many disadvantages. One of them being the efficency of the weapons, since both of the guns didn't have much ammo left, and they could attract any unwanted attentions. The scissors was his other option, but without most of his Dark power, it was next to useless if he wanted to go one-on-one with anything. Stealth kills were possible though.

And that led to the second problem he just found out recently: the link between him and the source of his power has been weakened. Though, he should have been expected that from the very beginning. He still had a bit, and it's refilling through time, but he wouldn't waste them until he could find either a way to strengthen the link or another way to refill his power, or he was forced to use them.

The third, it was about this very world. The very moment he saw the pink blob in his hands now and the dead wolf before, he could confidently say that he knew what world he's in.

Gamindustri. And where he appeared must be Graveyard, or at least somewhere near it.

But... if this Graveyard still existed, and the sky turned dark like this... then there are two possibilities.

One, he's in a totally different Gamindustri.

Two... Nepgear screwed things up.

It's a bit harsh to think like that, but it made sense. There was only the Conquest ending that could give this outcome. And Nepgear was the culprit... let's rephrase it: she picked the wrong option. And he was somewhere in the future after that ending. Though... what would he fight against? He doubted it's the girl herself, since she definitely wanted none of this to happen. Then, the only opponent he could think of was...

"Dogoo..." The blob nudged at him, snapping out of his thought. The Phoenixes were gone, and the sky was clear, as best as it could be. There was no other creatures around on the ground as well. He cuddled the blob to thank it before heading out to where the soldier would have been resided in: Planeptune.

* * *

Place: Planeptune Military Headquarters

Time: 11:45

"Sir." The communicator entered the room of the Colonel with a Pad in her hand. "Alpha team was KIA."

Colonel let out a frustrate sigh. He didn't want to send anymore troopers in that Goddess-forsaken place, and he was hoping the last member of that team could return... "You said they just went dark a bit half an hour ago..."

The girl opened her Pad and showed the Colonel the last picture of Alpha One-Nine, and the several pictures of the remains she could analyse. "Someone found Jonathan before he's dead. He might have told the person to give his helmet, which had the data we asked his team to investigate, to us."

Colonel raised his eyebrows. "Someone? You mean there was actually a person NOT from the Military and the Guild, just happened to appear right at the scene? Why didn't you think that person could be the person who killed his squad?"

The girl disagreed. "We're tracking the helmet, and it's heading right to us. Sometimes it stopped, but we could see the monsters surrounding it during that moment, and it moved again when none were seen. That person wouldn't have to go through that much troubles if he killed all of them..."

Colonel interrupted: "What could you make sure of that? It could be someone from that damn terrorist..."

"We can't identify him." That shut the man up a bit. "He told us his name, and we tried to find him if he is from any nations, but none were found in data. We decided to use voice detector, but no results. And his voice didn't sound like it's distorted either."

Colonel stroke his beard, thinking about that situation. Then: "Let me hear his voice."

The communicator's face turned green for a second. Of course she had to comply, but... "Sir, I have to warn you: Rosa just fainted a while ago hearing his voice."

He snorted. While being a good soldier, the Rosa girl was a bit terrified if she saw or heard stuffs about ghosts or such. He was not the girl. "Open it. I don't believe that voice could do anything to me."

The moment the voice was heard, the Colonel knew he goofed up. After hearing the conversation, he drank up the rest of his coffee before asking the communicator: "How were you so calm back then?"

The girl sheepishly said: "Maybe I was fed up about John's death, that I didn't think much about it. It was more terrified the more you heard it."

The Colonel rubbed his temples to calm himself down. Then he ordered: "Keep track of that person. Don't let him go dark on us like Alpha."

The girl saluted: "Roger!"

* * *

Place: Planeptune's East Entrance Checkpoint

Time: 13:30

'Abandoned.' Kuro thought to himself, as he took a look inside one of the cabins. Though, he did find that there was still electricity, and a working computer as well. He immediately plugged in his MP3 to charge it. Priorities first. Then, he put down the helmet to the right and connected it to the computer with a cable...

Place: Planeptune Military Headquarters

"Sir! He has reached the East Checkpoint!" Rosa spoke to the Colonel. Immediately she opened a communicate channel through the helmet. A little static, then it showed that the helmet's facing outside of the window. She then spoke up: "Um... Hello? Mister Kuro?" She then shook her body as she remembered what happened after she heard that voice.

"Dogoo?" To everyone's surprise, a pink Dogoo just jumped up to the table and licked the screen. It then turned left and jumped a few times while barking excitedly. The helmet then got picked up and worn by Kuro, and he faced the computer screen.

"...hello."

And with that, Rosa fainted again. Colonel sighed and answered: "Mister Kuro, I am Colonel Jackson. The helmet you were wearing belonged to one of our men. Why are you having it?"

A quiet moment... then: "He wanted... the data... in your hand... I owned him a favor."

The Colonel looked at the communicator, as she gave him a thumb up. He then asked: "What could make us trust you that you would do so without killing us first?"

... Kuro pulled out a lot of dog tags and showed it on the camera. "Good men... shouldn't die... alone."

The Colonel recognized one of them. It belonged to one of a twin, after he was killed the other has taken it with him. If this Kuro cared only about the data, he wouldn't waste his time collecting...

"WARNING! MONSTERS APPROACHING FROM THE NORTH!" Red lights flared up around the Barricades and the Headquarters, as every available soldier started gearing up and heading to the battlefield.

Not having much time, the Colonel spoke his last words to Kuro: "If you are our ally, then prove it." And with that, he headed out to command the units, as the monsters had managed to reach the last defense. If it was lost as well... Planeptune will be doomed.

Place: Planeptune's East Entrance Checkpoint

'So he didn't trust me yet... good.' Kuro thought to himself... then he put the dog tags back into the backpack he recently found.

"Mister Kuro..." The communicator from before spoke. "Please, I know it's..."

"North... where?" He simply asked.

... The girl answered: "Head inside the city. Some signs could give you the direction you need."

"Be there." Kuro disconnected the cable and unplugged the MP3. Music later, he had people to save.

"Dogoo?" The blob hopped on the cripple man's head, as he picked up the pack. He's a bit curious about... "DOGOO!" The blob pressed its body hard into the man's head to keep itself sticked, as the man ran with surprisingly fast speed...

* * *

Place: Last Defense, Barricade Alpha

Time: 14:00

"STATUS!"

"FIVE MINUTES BEFORE BOMBARDMENT!"

"IT WON'T MATTER IF WE ALL DIE HERE! HOW MANY PEOPLE WE HAVE LEFT?"

"Only the Hunters and Guild Members! The other soldiers have repositioned already!"

"THEN WHY *Stop to shoot down a mutated raven* ARE WE STILL HERE? CALL WANDA AND TELL HER TO CLEAN THESE #$!%^&* OFF!"

Place: Last Defense, Barricade Delta

Time: 14:10

"Are there anymore wounded?" Young Compa asked in worried as she looked around the clinic. People were lying everywhere, with wounds covering their whole bodies. Some had parts of their bodies lost during the fights, and some that looked like they won't have much time before... Thinking about it made her sad, because it reminded her off...

"Currently no." IF has finished moving another soldier to a wall, who has stablized himself enough to take care of himself, and heard Compa's question. "Rosa told us that Alpha team was dead, but someone has recovered Jonathan's helmet with the data. He was heading here now, if the military was still observing him..."

"Jonathan? Did... she know..." Compa's face turned sad after hearing the news.

"...We didn't tell her, yet... Anyway..." IF's one of many phones rang up, and she answered: "This is IF."

"We need your help! Wanda is going to use her EXE, but she needs distractions!" Someone shouted through the phone, combining with the weapons firing in the background to be extremely hard to hear.

"I got it!" She pocketed the phone before speaking to Compa: "Find Histoire and ask her if she needs something."

To Compa, that's more like 'Take a rest' but she didn't say anything about. "Okie dokie, Iffy!"

Place: War room

Time: 14:15

"How is this going, Colonel?"

"Not very good, General sir. We're detecting more and more monsters heading here. All citizens were evacuated... at least if our radar counted it right."

"*Sigh* What about the data? You said someone has recovered it..."

"We're still tracking him... until ten minutes ago. The bombardment has created a temporary EMP Field that destroyed our track on him."

"... you just said the radar..."

"We don't have any data of him. The only thing that could help us tracking him is Alpha One-Nine helmet, and..."

"S...sir..." The two highest officers in the room looked at the door, to see a shaking Rosa. "We...found the one... with the helmet..."

Colonel's inner self sighed in relief. Now he didn't have to send anymore of his soldiers in that cursed place. Though, noticing how the girl was terrified, he asked: "That's good to hear. But why are you so..."

The girl couldn't stand anymore as she fell on her knees, her eyes showed that she's very scared. "The...person... he was..."

Place: Last Defense, Barricade Alpha

Time: 14:08

The soldiers were doing their best shooting down any monsters coming in their sights. Hunters were also helping them being the front lines and stopping the monsters which were resistance to bullets. However, all of them knew they could only last so long, as most of the monsters they shot down were just lesser ones. Their mutations and evolutions only helped those so far before the Hunters cleaved them with their sharpened weapons.

Then, something came to them with heavy steps, creating earth shakes now and then. The lessen ones have stopped advancing, but the footsteps came closer...

When that thing was on sight, all melee Hunters immediately covered the Mages, who started releasing spells on it. The soldiers' main primary weapons turned to that thing as well and opened fire. Between the sound of bullets and explosions, one soldier shouted into his radar: "This is Barricade Alpha! That damn thing appeared again! Our current weapons won't hold him for long!"

One of the communicators immediately reported the situation to the nearby higher officer. Then, the order were made: "Start retreating! Call Barricade Beta to prepare Last Call! We have one shot for it!"

Place: Last Defense, Barricade Beta

Time: 14:12

IF reached the scene and greeted the Elite Hunter. "Wanda! People said you need help."

Wanda slammed her hand on the giant cannon. "I'm going to channel my spell into the cannon, but I will be vulnerable during it. And that damn thing was approaching."

IF gritted her teeth in anger. Even those Dragons before were no match after a long time of grinding levels with the CPUs. But that damn thing suddenly appeared and screwed everything up! "Alright, I got the memo! We will keep it busy!"

Time: 14:15

"How long until it's done?" "Just a few more seconds."

IF used her Demon Flame to burn down some monsters, then buried one of her qatar's blades into the skull of a lessen wolf. Seeing another one running to her, she pulled out her pistol and planted a few shots to its face, then stabbed its heart with both her qatars. Pulling them out and jumping away from a pack of mutated rats, The Wind Walker threw energy bolts through their bodies, ending their rampages.

Then, she felt the rush of wind behind her, as she turned back to see energy gathering on the tip of the cannon. Then, the footsteps were near... and she followed the trail of the shot and it travelled to the enormous creature, creating a huge impact that shocked everything up and broke all the glasses around the affected area. A smoke emitted of the impact, covering the head of the monster, as it stood still in its place...

One...

Two...

Three...

Ten...

Its fingers moved...

"No." IF voiced out everyone's disbelief. Once the smoke dismissed, it showed the unaffected head of that creature, with its eyes showing that it's angry by the shot. And as everyone's worst nightmare, the sky turned even darker, as the monster's mouth started shining, indicating that it's going to use the same attack before that destroyed their previous defenses with no problems. And nothing could stop it from destroying the last circle before the monsters flooded in and killed every single citizen in it. IF fell to her knees, looked to the ground with her eyes tearing up. "I... am sorry... Neptune... we failed you..." And she closed her eyes... and waited for Death to take her life...

...

An explosion occurred, but it's nowhere behind her but... above? She looked up to see that smoke coming out of the monster's mouth, but its jaws and teeth were all broken. Then, a black figure jumped off its head and landed on the ground. During the fall, IF noticed some kind of lines connecting to the figure, as one head seemed to have connected somewhere else. And when the figure slammed his left hand down to the ground, a very dim light emitted from those lines, and those lines seemed to... run past through the monster's body? During all of that and even after, the monster didn't do, or make any sounds. Then... its body was cut vertically into pieces, falling harmlessly to the ground. Dead.

All of the witnesses didn't say a word, as they were too shocked of the event before them. Then, the figure raised its left hand again, for everyone to see strings grabbing around its black-mist-covered left fingers. And with that, strings appeared from nowhere and wrapped on all of the monsters in the figure's sight. Then, with a single close of its fingers... all the strings tightened up and cut every monster into mince.

Not only IF but everyone couldn't believe what they just watched. One single person just killed a monster even Last Call couldn't kill with just one move, and every other lessen monsters as well...

"Alpha One-Nine?" One of the Special Force units asked in surprise. Everyone turned to the soldier as he continued: "The figure's head were sending his codes... No wait, he must be the one who found him!"

After that, the figure turned back, and the black mist vanished just enough to show the helmet. Then, the figure spoke up: "Kuro... at your service..."

And that's when EVERY. SINGLE. UNIT pointed their weapons towards the figure. They might relieve that monster was killed, but now... to them, an even more dangerous one appeared in the picture.

"STAND DOWN!" At the right time, the Colonel and General walked in the scene, as the former gave out the order.

"Sir, with all respects..." A nearby soldier spoke up. "But we couldn't do so. You might have seen what he just did..."

"And he's kind enough not to do so on us." Jackson countered back. He then turned back to Kuro as he apologized: "Sorry about that, but you could see the point."

The helmet moved up and down. The General then asked: "May I ask about that black mist of yours? Is that your power?"

The helmet moved up and down again, but before the General could ask more, the helmet turned left and right. Confused, IF asked: "What kind of answer is that?"

Jackson guessed: "Both Yes and No?" Up and down only this time. "So maybe he got that power somewhere else instead of being his own."

The General then asked thae crucial question: "Can you remove the helmet so we could see how you look like?"

A silence... left and right. And Kuro spoke: "Suggest not... will scare..."

Everyone's grip on their weapons tightened. The General, for the first time in his life, got shocked because of just words. Colonel Jackson immediately said: "We are trying to talk with you here. We want to..."

"Dogoo?" IF immediately looked down to see the pink blob next to her leg. Being too paranoid, the girl kicked it away, then pulled her pistol out with her right hand and pointed to the Dogoo... only to be held by Kuro's left hand and he pointed the weapon to the sky. Startled, she planned to slash him with her left qatar, but with surprisingly fast reflex, he grabbed her arm with his free hand, completely pinching her in place. Even the Colonel and the General pulled out their guns and pointed to the man as well.

"H..hey! What's the big deal?! That's..." IF tried to pull her arms off with no success.

"Don't." That immediately froze her. Despite the word being spoken normally, she could feel the coldness coming from the guy. With the helmet on, she couldn't see his face, but she guessed he's staring down on her. But while looking at the taller person, she caught a glimpse of the other's hand, and her pupils shrank in fear. Instead of a normal, what's holding her right arm was a bone hand, nothing more nothing less. She immediately looked down to see the injured right arm, with stitches and wounds beyond saving. Now she noticed the black mist started fading away, slowly revealing the blood-tainted clothes.

Then slowly, Kuro released his grip on IF, as he backed away with small steps so everyone could have a good view on him. Then, he reached for the helmet, and removed it...


	3. Chapter 3

'The lost soul has revealed his true self to the world. He cared not what the world thought of him. The only thing he knew was that, this world needed people like him to be saved from its own devastation.'

* * *

The moment the helmet was off, IF wanted to put it immediately back over that person's head. Because of this crisis time, she has seen people being injured in multiple ways. Losing an arm or a leg, burnt in various degrees, cuts on their torso, scars, broken cribs and such. But she has never seen multiple of them applying to ONE person. His left arm wad basically bones, and his right was covered with dried blood and poorly done stitches! She didn't want to know what kind of wounds were under that blood-stained white shirt and black trousers as well. And with the helmet off, the person showed his horrified face towards everyone. His short black hair was too messy for its own good, though it was definitely not the reason people would stay away or try to kill him. It had to be that cursed face, with the left head completely being skull with a symbol swirling inside the eye socket. The other half had pale skin (not white), with an eye identical to a dead fish's. Fortunately, or the opposite, his nose was still in normal condition... that made it look weird for some reasons. But, there was a stitch connecting his lips to his ears, and an identical crack line parallel to it in the skull half. When he opened his mouth, the stitch slightly extended along with the crack being opened, making it look like his half above of his head was about to fall!

Screams of terror echoed in the air, as the unarmed civilians backed away from the man as far as possible. The Guild Agent has backed off as well and drew her weapons out, preparing any attacks that the man could throw at them. But, after the panic started for a minute, Kuro did nothing but observe the faces of everyone. Then, he slowly put the helmet down to the ground, which caused the guns to lower to him as well, then he pulled out the dog tags he collected and put next to the helmet. He stood up and said: "Promise..."

Simple, but it was enough to understand what he meant. Then he slowly turned back to where the monsters were. And he started walking...

"Wait." The Colonel's order stopped the cripple man. "My apologize for the others' reactions. It was impolite from us to not thank you for saving us from the monsters. Please don't mind it."

Without turning back, Kuro answered: "Don't mind... knew so... now, to other places..."

General recovered and asked: "What do you mean 'other places'? You wanted to head out with those wounds of yours?"

His head temporarily looked at the mentioned wounds, then said: "Not hurt... not mine..."

IF, from fear to suspicious, now had a little curiosity. Those wounds meant nothing to him? And why did he say 'not his'? If it's not for him, then for whom?

"Don't be stubborn about that, mister!" IF nearly jumped when she heard a familiar voice behind her. "You will get infection if you didn't treat them soon!"

The agent turned back and asked/shouted to the nurse: "Compa, why are you here? I thought you were with Histoire?"

"She still is." The small fairy announced her appearance to IF, who just now noticed people bowing respectfully to the Oracle. Histoire then approached to Kuro, who has turned back due to him hearig Compa's voice. "Mister Kuro, we thank you for what you have done for us. Without your help, this nation would have fallen." Kuro nodded in response. "However, like Compa said, your injury will be worse if you didn't take care of it."

Kuro shook his head. "No worry... no infection..."

And of course Compa didn't believe it one bit, as she stomped towards the man and grabbed his right arm. "The stitches are falling off and the blood is trickling out! You are not going anywhere until you are fixed!"

"But..." Whatever he's about to say turned deaf as he was pulled by the girl through the crowd of people, who just stepped aside in a bit of fear, and into the nearest clinic.

The General blinked a bit, not believing what just happened. Then, he asked the Oracle: "Miss Histoire, why are you out here?"

Histoire: "I saw Last Call fired off but failed to kill the monster, so I rushed out to try to create a barrier to save you all. But it seems mister Kuro was able to end it before it could deal the damage."

The Colonel then picked up the dog tags and the helmet of Alpha One-Nine. "I hope whatever Alpha Team found out would be worth. Otherwise..."

IF assured the Colonel. "It will be, mister Jackson." Then she told Histoire: "I'm going to check on Compa. Would you like to come with me?"

Histoire nodded. "I'm curious about how he got that wound. Maybe Compa would be able to talk it out of him."

* * *

Place: Clinic

Time: 14:30

"You are so careless, mister Kuro." Compa scolded at the man, who didn't respond, but he did show a little guilt when he heard that. "You could have lost your arm if the wounds are worse! What did you do to have those?"

Currently Compa was removing the old stitches and applying new ones to close the wounds. IF and Histoire were also in the same room.

"I don't think he would speak." IF deadpanned. "And I would prefer that way."

Compa scolded her friend: "Don't be so rude, Iffy."

IF: "You DID hear his voice before..."

Compa: "Yeah, it sounds scary, but he wasn't being mean... Right?" She turned to ask the last word to Kuro, who just nodded. "See?"

Histoire then changed the subject: "Mister Kuro, may I ask why you were in Gamindustri earlier?"

Kuro shook his head lightly. "Not sure..."

IF sighed. "Another amnesia? We already dealt with Nep..."

Kuro shook his head again. "Memories intact... teleportation... not known beforehand..."

Histoire nodded in understand. "You were using a teleportation device, but you didn't know where it would send you to. Is that correct?" His answer was a nod. "May I ask where you are from? I couldn't find you in Planeptune data." Head shook. "Lastation? Lowee? Leanbox?" Same answer.

IF pinched her nose bridge in annoyance. "Instead of amnesia, we have short-term memories lose..."

"Different universe..." That answer silenced everyone in the room. The only sound was heard was the ceiling fan spinning slowly on top of their heads.

Histoire was able to recover first, and she asked again "Excuse me, sir. Different universe? You are saying there are other universe?" A nod wad her answer.

IF sighed in frustration. "That sounds ridiculous. That's like when Vert talked about..."

"It does make sense." Histoire interrupted her thought. "He didn't show anything that could classify him as a citizen of any nations. And he didn't possess an inventory bracelet, which are mandatory to everyone here."

Compa: "Maybe he broke it?"

Histoire: "Could be. But that couldn't be said about the former. And look at his watch? You recognize its brand?"

IF, being the one travelling more, took a look at the watch, then shook her head. Histoire then said: "The watch doesn't look expensive, and it's mass produced if I am correct. Something being mass produced that could pass through our observances is impossible."

Kuro's chuckle made them turn back to him. Histoire then asked: "Was your intention to get here to help us?"

Kuro shook his head. "Not just you... everybody..."

Compa finished the work on his right arm and moved to the stitch on his head, but he used his left hand to stop her. "Come on, mister. Don't be stubborn!" He opened his mouth wider than he normally did when he spoke, so the girls could see the stretch in the stitch with the crack on the skull widen. Then he used his left hand to hold the head back.

IF grimaced at the scene. Histoire discomfortly said: "I think you have done enough for him, Compa. Mister Kuro, please take a rest. We don't want to see you collapse during your travel."

Kuro disagreed. "Dangers..."

Histoire: "Another nations are still safe. That monster appeared only in Planeptune, and you killed it. That, we owe you a thank. But, let your wounds heal before you head out."

Seeing that he couldn't refuse, he sighed. "Fine... three days."

Histoire exhaled in relief. "Thank you. Let us take you to a guest room in the Basilicom. We will call you if we need to ask you something."

Kuro nodded in response. "Lead the way..."

* * *

Place: Meeting room, Planeptune Basilicom

Time: 15:00

The Oracle of Planeptune asked the General: "Did you find something?"

The General nodded. "Luckily that monster was one of a kind. But, there's a risk that a similar one for each nation will appear soon. Alpha team found four gigantic cocoons in a cave, one of each has been opened. They tried to destroy the others, but their weapons couldn't scratch the surface. They blew up the entrance, but that definitely won't hold those monsters for long."

She nodded at that answer. The other nations would have time to prepare their defenses. "Are there anything else?"

The Colonel continued: "They have tested the Sharicite you gave them. It dealt massive damages to the monsters, even killed the lesser ones in one go. But Share Energy depleted quite fast, and Alpha couldn't make it out as the Sharicite shattered."

Histoire sighed. "Goddesses bless them all. So what we need is Share. But with the current situation..."

"Is it possible..." Everyone looked at IF. "... that we could create another CPU to gain Share?"

The General disagreed. "My apologize, but we can't risk that. We couldn't have known what the next CPU could be. If she's anything like Corrupted Goddess..."

"It could be an imposter." IF interrupted. "The Goddess we knee would never do so."

The Colonel was with the General: "If that's the case, then this imposter did a great job in mimicking every move."

Histoire ended the problem: "Right now, it's not matter who she is. She's a threat to Gamindustri, and we have to stop her."

Everyone silently nodded. Then, the two military men stood up, excusing themselves to go out and do their work. IF sighed. "I hate to admit, but I'm starting to have doubt about this..."

Histoire: "I don't want to say it, but that's not the Nepgear we know anymore. We have to fight her in order to protect the others." A little silence. "Is our guest doing well?"

IF: "A bit unfamiliar with our technology, but he can adapt quickly. Oh, he found the Dogoo and brought it with him. We tried to protest, but..." She shivered when she remembered his glare. "I don't know why he wants to keep it around."

Histoire: "Maybe he saw something in the creature... when was the last time we saw one?"

IF: "Two years ago, I believe. Not so sure myself, in this time of crisis..."

* * *

Place: Guest room

Time: 16:30

"Dogoo..." The pink blob sat comfortably in the bed, as Kuro stood before the open window watching the destruction in Planeptune. It was bad due to the monsters' aggressive attacks, and it could be worse if he didn't that Godzilla. And he could have been down there fighting with the folks if Compa didn't 'pin' him in this room.

'A good girl she is, but she's too much motherly. And I hate myself for loving that side of hers.' He thought, a little embarrassed that he just let her do whatever she wanted to him... that showed wrong out of context.

Then, he heard a knock on the room's main door. He walked to it and opened, to see the girl in the picture Jonathan gave him standing before him. She seemed to have cried before she headed here.

"Good afternoon mister Kuro." The girl greeted him. "I have heard that you met Jonathan before he died. Can you tell me how he died?"

Kuro took a little moment to remember the scene. Then he answered: "Not sure... lost below half... maybe a wolf..."

The girl was not very pleased when she heard that. "I... see... thanks for telling...I will leave now..."

"Wait." Before she could walk away, the man pulled out the picture and the small box. The girl gasped in surprise when she received it, as Kuro said: "His last will..."

The girl nodded and opened the box, to reveal a ring. Tears started coming out again and she hugged Kuro despite her fear to him, and the cry echoed through the area. The small Dogoo even stopped making sound. Kuro let the girl cry in his shoulder, ignoring the tears wetting his shirt. He understood the pain she's having, as he knew about this when he talked with the 'victims' about their lives. Nothing is worse than when you hear your lover die outside of their arms. And it's adding more to the pain when the last will is the last thing they would want to hear.

About a minute later, the girl let go off him and apologized: "I... am sorry. It's just... too much for me to handle."

He rubbed her shoulders to comfort her. "Don't worry... let out... better than keep in..."

The girl wiped the tears away. "Thanks, mister... You wasn't that scary when I talk to you like this. Can't judge a book by its cover..."

Kuro: "Shouldn't... you need anything else?"

The girl shook her head. "I'm good now. Thanks again, and have a good day." Kuro nodded and waved goodbye to the girl.

He closed the door and walked back into the room. Then, he sat on the bed and patted the Dogoo, who just rubbed itself into his hand. He then looked at the wet spot. 'I bet a thousand credits that I'm going to get scolded by Compa... and forced to wear something that I don't feel comfortable.'


	4. Chapter 4

'The rekindled soul has stayed to save the first nation. But, to do so, he needs something more than just his darkness.'

* * *

Location: ?

Time: ?

"Neptune, I can't do this!"

"Nepgear, you have to do so! It's for the sake of Gamindustri!"

"BUT...But how could I..."

"Don't worry, we will always be with you, no matter what. You're stronger than any of us now. You know this is the only way."

"N...Neptune...I..."

"We don't have much time. Nepgear, stay strong. For me, for Histoire, for everybody..."

"... Big Sis... I'M SORRY!"

* * *

Location: Guest room

Time: 03:00

The pain through his chest forced him wake out of his slumber. He immediately reached his hand under his shirt and checked for the wound. But, aside from his current body, he couldn't feel any other wounds. The pain was still there, burning under his skin.

'That dream... no, Vision Of The Past. The Conquest Ending. I tried to avoid thinking about it... Damn, That Curse just had to do so to me.' Speaking in his mind, he stood up and walked to the balcony. 'Why? I know it must mean something, but the way it vividly came to my mind... Was it the curse, or it was something else?'

"Do...gooooo..." He turned back to see the pink blob sitting/laying comfortably on the new dog pillow he found in the mess of the fight. It's still sleeping, unaware of what just happened to him.

'Well... I think we stopped calling her 'it' now, should we... Creator?'

Maybe. But that vision was a surprise.

'From what?'

I don't know myself, sorry.

'Don't be. You're just the writer...Talk to you later, I heard footsteps.'

Be careful.

After confirming that Creator has left his mind, Kuro started focusing on the sound outside of his room, as he quietly pressed himself on the door...

"You said this is the new guy's room?"

"Heard it, chu. And there's no other room around here, chu."

'Linda and Warechu. Stealing is still in their blood huh?' Using Darkness to cover himself, he disappeared into a dark corner of the room, waiting for them to come in.

The lock on the door started turning slowly and making as little noise as possible, and with a soft *click*, the criminals walked into the room. The mouse had not much changes, other from the scar on his back. Meanwhile Linda's clothes was tainted with blood and has been frayed. The two looked around and started trying to steal some stuffs in the room. In his mind, Kuro could only sigh. He knew these two were having a hard life, but... 'Wait, I thought she was killed...' Come to think... the vision was slightly different...maybe something else happened, and she managed to escape...

Linda grunted when she closed the empty closet. "Nothing worth. What's so important about this guy that they gave him a place to stay?"

"He killed that enormous monster, chu. That military weapon didn't work against that thing."

"Really? I heard he's too fragile to be..."

"Fragile...so?" Suddenly both of ASIC former members were covered in strings, each extremely sharp and near the body of cutting them in pieces. The two froze, and turned to the corner of the room, to see the face of terror emerging out of the wall. The two were too scared, because they were caught, and because of that face. "No word... no busted..." Kuro put a finger on his lips, signalling the two to be silenced. They knew that they're screwed either way, so they nodded furiously. Then the strings disappeared, giving them space to breathe. Then Kuro walked and sat heavily on a chair. He then spoke: "Go...won't say a word."

Both of them blinked, as Linda asked in surprise: "You... just let us go like that?"

"Desperate time... but, one more... will be no more." Kuro glared at the two with the symbol in his left eye spinning like crazy. Receiving the deadly message, the two gulped and ran away quietly, not daring to turn their heads back.

"*Sigh* Those two..." He stood up and closed the door, before heading back to the bed. 'This is not going to be okay.' He decided to use the last three hours of darkness to rest until the sun raised and pushed the dark clouds away.

* * *

Location: Guest room

Time: 06:00

'The sun's blocked. Darn.' Kuro woke up again, while the world's still tired after that event. He decided to let the little blob sleep, as he walked out of the room quietly. And he met Histoire in her pajamas.

"Oh, good morning mister Kuro." The Oracle was a little surprised that one of the guests has woken up so early. "I didn't expect you to wake up already."

"Understand...tired...yesterday." He nodded. After that fight, everyone was too fatigue, and they couldn't do much more than taking the rest.

Histoire continued: "Do you want something to eat?"

He shook his head. "You?"

"I am heading to my office. Have some leftover papers that needed some attentions."

"Me, follow?" Kuro gave out his offer.

Histoire tried to deny: "It's okay, Kuro. I don't want to bother you..."

"Insist."

Seeing that he's not giving up, the Oracle gave in. "Thank you. Please follow me."

* * *

Location: Histoire's office

Kuro tilted his head after he saw the stacks of paper on her table. He then looked at Histoire for confirmation, which she answered: "It just arrived yesterday, but... you know, the monsters appeared."

A simple nod, as he took a glance on one paper. Histoire continued: "All we need to do is to stamp on them, nothing serious. I have checked them before getting to bed."

Another nod, and this time Kuro took a nearby chair. "Fast... to breakfast."

* * *

Two hours later

"Crap, I'm late." IF looked at the time on her phone while walking quickly in the Basilicom. Yesterday, after that near-extinction event, Histoire has received a lot of paperwork, and the Guild Agent has volunteered to help her. However, due to how exhausted she was, she overslept. Now, she's trying to reach the Oracle's office as fast as possible. "I hope she's not mad at me... Here it is!"

Knocking on the door, and hearing the call of Oracle, IF opened the door. "Sorry Histoire, I was overslept!"

"It's okay, IF. Kuro has helped me with the work already." Hearing that, IF blinked once to notice that the new person was indeed in the room, stacking the papers up. The man noticed the Agent, and he waved his hand to greet her, who returned the gesture awkwardly. Then Histoire asked: "I want to ask more about you, Kuro. Would you like to join us in the cafeteria?"

Fixing the stacks one more time, Kuro gave her a thumb up. IF eased up that Histoire had someone to help, but... for some reasons she's not going to like that person...much.

* * *

Location: Cafeteria

"YOU ARE DEAD ALREADY?" IF shouted in surprise after hearing the shock truth and slammed her hands on the table, causing the whole area to look at the group. It's common now that the Oracle to come down and join with the people here, and even with the best friends of the CPUs. Though, they didn't expect that the new guy would be with them already... and after that truth as well.

The person in question just nodded, before taking a small sip from his water glass. Histoire explained: "He was dead before he got to our world. From what he said, some kind of curse managed to bind his soul into his body, that's why he's still moving like a living one. About his appearance...it was another story."

IF sat back and rubbed her eyes. "I could bet that he knew that and being reckless. That could explain the wounds."

Kuro shook his head, and to everyone's horror, brought up a nearby knife and stabbed his right hand. Blood dripped out of the wound and blasted everywhere. Histoire sighed, knowing what he did. IF on the other hand was scared and tried to find anything to cover his wound, then she saw him pulling out the knife. And then all the blood from before floated up and retreated back into the wound, leaving the cafeteria clean of his blood and the new wound disappear. Though, his previous wounds weren't fixed after that. "Wounds...of the others..."

All eyes focused on Histoire for the explanation, considering she's calm during the whole process... "Thhen e curse has after effects. His appearance will be affected by the wounds of the dead people. The cuts on his body, the half skeleton... that's the presentation."

Nearby watchers who were not familiar with this ran off to the toilet and vomited, while the ones calmer were wearing the same face as IF. Kuro patted the Dogoo, who's eating next to him. "Truth... hard to swallow... have to accept..."

The Guild Agent was starting to not like him more and more. The amount of wrong things he's talking about were way out of their imagination. While they couldn't reject the fact that he was a very great help in saving Gamindustri, but with how he looked and talked... she's not sure if they could trust him.

Histoire suddenly changed the subject: "IF, have you seen Compa?"

Snapping out of her thought, IF answered: "She would be at noon. Saying there are some needs in the main hospital."

The Oracle turned to Kuro. "Have you planned to do something today?"

He looked around him, then back to his clothes. And then he remembered: "Weapons."

IF crossed her arms, doubtfully said: "I saw you using those strings before. They were extremely effective..."

He shook his head. "Too bloody...Drain Dark energy..."

Histoire: "D...Dark energy?"

Kuro: "Negative emotions... anger... blood-thirst... vengeance...kill..."

With each word, people started feeling the air being heavier and heavier around the person. They're feeling the exact same phenomenon when Deity of Sins awakened...no, when the Corrupted Goddess appeared... then the feeling disappeared in an instant, causing everyone to blink once before hearing Kuro continuing: "That's why."

Histoire exhales the breath she had unconsciously held when he spoke. "I think you have proven the point..."

IF shook her head again. That's not something she liked to see. Histoire then asked her: "IF, if it's not too troublesome, can you take him to someone who sells weapons?"

She knew why the Oracle asked her. She's one of the very few she could trust completely. "It's no problem... Kuro, call me if you want to go."

Kuro shook his head and stood up, with the Dogoo finishing the meal and jumping on his head. "Sooner...better..."

IF took that as a 'now'. "Okay, then follow me."

* * *

Time: 08:15

Location: On the road to weapon shop

'It feels like he's not there at all!' IF screamed in her mind. She's taking the guy by her bike, and he didn't really object before. But, for a while, she couldn't feel ANYTHING coming from the guy. She KNEW he was still at her back, considering that nobody was screaming about a person falling off the bike's back. She KNEW it's going to be a quiet drive... But that became SUPER CREEPY when she can't even feel the person sitting DIRECTLY AT HER BACK! For all the Goddesses, how?

"Uncomfortable?" AND DON'T SPEAK WITH THAT CREEPY VOICE OF YOURS!

"YES!" IF shouted without thinking. "For all CPUs sake, you are like a ghost!"

"I am."

She immediately facepalmed in her mind. Of course he had to answer like that. "Just... try to make some noises, so that I can still know that you're there."

"Right." IF felt Kuro pulling something behind her... then, she felt music opening up. It was very small, but she could catch the sound.

"Music huh? Never thought you would be into that." Then she heard him humming with the song's tone. Luckily it wasn't affected by his creepy voice. And thanks to that, she could at least enjoy... why did that song sound familiar to her?

After a while, they reached where they needed to be. 'Business still runs in crisis.' IF thought to herself, then pushed the entrance door open, causing the doorbell to ring up.

"Ah, customers." The shopkeeper talked to himself while checking the stash behind the deck. He then looked up to see IF's face. "Ah, miss IF. My pleasure seeing you here. Your weapons got dull again?"

The girl shook her head. "Not today. I am taking a... an acquaintance with me. His weapon... was a bit unorthodox."

The shopkeeper raised his eyebrow while re-ordering the weapons laying before him. "A new Guild Member in this time? That's quite surprising. I would think there would be new Hunters instead of that."

IF: "No. He is... at the moment, a nobody."

The shopkeeper looked at the girl suspiciously. "Why would a 'nobody' need a weapon? I mean, no offense, but this is not the time for someone who's not professional to try to be a hero."

IF sighed. She didn't want to say it directly. "You remembered what happened yesterday? We were nearly doomed if he didn't show up."

"What? So the rumors are true then..."

"I suspect they didn't sound good?"

"Well...considering how people described him... anyway, where is he?"

"He..." IF turned back to see Kuro, still outside of the shop, standing idle next to her bike. IF groaned. "Come on... wait for me."

"I'm not going anywhere." Nodding at the answer, she walked out of the shop.

Kuro didn't even react when she walked to him, as she said: "Hey, Kuro! You said you wanted to buy weapons, right? I won't pick for you, you have to find something that suits you." No response. The Dogoo (it hid itself inside the bag before) popped out and tried to stir him, with no success. IF waved her hand in front of his opening eyes. "HEY KURO!" Nothing. "Urgh, just what happened to..." The moment she touched him...

* * *

Time: ?

Location: Vision Of The Past

IF blinked once, and Kuro's gone, along with her bike as well.

"Wait...what happened?" She then looked up... to see a blue sky. The color... it made her relax for a moment. "It's been a while..." Then she shook her head. "That doesn't matter now. I need to find..."

"YAHOO! It's as good as new now!" IF froze up, then turned back. Walking out of the weapon store, it's no other than the deceased CPU of Planeptune, in her human form. Walking behind her were...herself, Compa... and the Candidate of Planeptune.

'IF' sighed. "How could you still fight with it? I mean, you could get a better weapon."

Neptune disagreed: "Hey! A main character only needs one trusty weapon and a bunch of upgrades!"

Nepgear giggled. "It's not really broken, so we could still use it."

Compa followed: "Nep-nep's weapon is really durable. Only a few maintains, and it's good as new."

'IF': "Still, pulling all of us to go with you. I feel like you're exploiting something from us."

Neptune fake-pouted: "Hey, don't you trust this old buddy of yours?" Then she found the ice cream stand. "Ice cream! Perfect for summer!" And she just ran towards it, leaving the others behind.

'IF' pinched her nose bridge. "I take it that she's trying to slack off?"

Nepgear nervously smiled. "Yeah... pretty much."

'IF' then walked off, followed by the others. "Better take her back before Histoire call me. Or Nep is going to have a scold... again."

After the trial left, IF stood there, extremely surprised and shocked of the event. "That... happened years ago... When Neptune asked us to go to get her sword fixed... But... how..." Then the world around her broke down like glasses...

* * *

Time: Present

Location: In front of the weapon shop

"IF?" The girl blinked again. Kuro was now staring at her, concern written on his face. "You saw?"

"S...Saw what?" She asked back, a bit fearfully that he might not want her to know.

"The past... YOUR past... here..." It's not a question, but a statement.

Seeing that she couldn't say otherwise, she answered: "Yes... but how?"

"Vision Of The Past." The man said it automatically with no problems. Then the familiar voice came out: "Events... popped up... me... saw it... learnt more... happened last night too..."

So he could look at the past? Then: "Last night? What did you see?"

This time, he didn't answer, instead he shook his head. Then he walked to the shop, followed quickly by IF. The Dogoo has jumped on his head as well and glued herself there.

Once inside, the shopkeeper got the view of the other person's appearance, that caused a shiver on his back. "Wow... I think the rumors have toned down a bit... I thought they were joking, but direct look is even worse... And that Dogoo..."

Kuro didn't say anything, as he walked to a weapon shelf and started checking them off. IF walked to the shopkeeper and said: "That's him. Think what he should get?"

He asked back: "I thought he already had weapons? Then how did he kill that monster?"

IF: "That one... drained his own power to use. That's why he didn't rely on it much."

"Ah, I see... it seems he has something in his eyes." IF turned back to see Kuro staring at the pistol shelf. There, she could see he's standing before a revolver... two of them in fact. And both of them seemed to be very old-fashioned. Current weapons all had automatic refill ammo, but there are people who still made classic ones. Though not many liked them anymore, since it would be annoyed when you're running out of ammo in middle of the fight and not having time to reload. And when she looked at his right eye, she was surprised to see an emotion she never thought he could give out: gleefulness. Like when a kid looking at his favorite toy.

When Kuro noticed IF looking at him with a funny face, he just turned a bit away to hide the blush appearing on his right face. That made the Agent giggle. "Come on, there's no need to be afraid. Just ask, I will get it for you, okay?" Still turning away, he nodded, which made IF pat on his back. "Seemed like you really like it." The Dogoo also made the same funny face to him as she jumped on the shelf and faced him, causing him to pout.

"Well, seems like you have picked them." The shopkeeper commented, as the buyers picked the weapons and gave it to him. "Give me a few minutes. I will do a quick maintain. They have stayed there for quite long time." He went inside and started the machines up. "Not many would pick these. They would prefer the modern ones." He talked to himself. "That guy... a strange one... never seen him before. Another nation? Couldn't be. Even if it IS the case, he should have a weapon with him... never mind. Not my business."

Outside, Kuro started looking around more, making IF to remember one thing: "Right, you need a close range weapon. Those guns won't help much if the enemies are in front of your face." Kuro shook his head and put his right hand in his trousers' front pocket. Then he pulled out his bloodied scissors, causing IF step back in fear. "...Forget that I just asked."

After a while, the shopkeeper came back. "Here you go. Two newly fixed revolvers, with a box of bullets and straps for the guns as well. Man, it's been a quite I pulled those out..."

IF nodded and started to pull out her wallet, when the shopkeeper stopped her: "Consider this as my thank to him for saving us. Oh, and discounts for next times as well."

IF was surprised about that. But, she couldn't turn down the offer. "Thanks for that... you know, you made a lot of discounts for Nep before."

The shopkeeper blinked, then recognized who she's talking about. "Ah, our Goddess... well, isn't that obvious?"

Kuro wore the strap around his waist, picked up the revolvers, then started spinning them with fast pace. Then he pulled out some stunts with them, causing the ones in the shop to stare at him in surprise. Then, in one swift move, he put them back to the strap in a cowboy fashion. With that done, he let out a satisfied smile. "Finally..."

The Dogoo jumped back to her favorite spot, as the shopkeeper commented: "Now that's show-off. Not bad."

IF: "Never thought you could do something like that."

Kuro chuckled. "First."

The shopkeeper laughed. "First time? You must have some talents. You need something else?"

Kuro shook his head and took the box of bullets. "Thanks." He gave his gratitude to the seller.

"Don't sweat it. Please visit soon."

* * *

Hours later

Location: Histoire's office

"How was your day, Compa, IF?"

Compa: "Still the same, I guess. But the patients were happier, after they knew the large monster is gone."

IF: "Okay, I guess. Kuro has some talents, but he still needs to work on the way to speak with people."

Histoire: "Until we find out a way for him speak indirectly. Anything else?"

IF turned serious: "He could look at our past. Compa, remembered the time Nep tried to escape from work by pulling us to go with her saying to maintain her weapon?"

Compa: "Uhm... yes? Why?"

IF turned back to the Oracle. "He did have another vision earlier, but he didn't tell me what it was about. If he could do so anytime, he could have already known about how to defeat... her."

Histoire shook head head. "I don't think he could find anything. There was nothing similar to the threat we're facing. Not even the Deity of Sins herself."

IF then gave out a suggestion: "Can we use a drone to observe him all the time?"

Compa scowled: "That's rude, IF. We can't do that to our guest."

"How about like old times?" The two human turned to the fairy. "Like when you helped Nepgear, this time you can help him."

Compa didn't look like she didn't like it. IF on the other hand: "Can we send another one? Another MALE?"

Histoire sighed. "I'm sorry, but you two are the ones I could only trust for everything. We can't risk having any mistakes."

The nurse nudged the agent's right arm. "Come on IF. He's not that bad."

IF: "He is not. But the fact I couldn't feel him when he sat right behind me was unnerving!"

* * *

Just outside the office, Kuro, invisible to every naked visions, has heard everything. On his face, a small proud smile stationed there. 'They still work well with each other. That's all I need now. But, to pull the world out of the madness, we need to fix the relationship back to the time before THAT happened. And that... requires a lot of work. And time... is not something we have.' He then walked off. 'Maybe a month. Then to the another nations.'


	5. Chapter 5

'A soul... or a body with a vast of vengeful souls...that doesn't matter. Not when it helps the main soul escaping from troubles.'

* * *

Time: 08:00

Location: Compa's house

"Virtua... Forest?"

"Yep! The plants there aren't damaged too much, so we could find some herbs to make medicines."

Compa has asked Kuro to help her, since IF was having troubles with some works in the Guild. And Kuro was not having anything to do.

Kuro nodded, while hovering the dog toy over the pink Dogoo, making it bounce and try to grab it in excitement. "When?"

"Well, we have to wait for... Ah, I think she's here!" During her talk, someone honked outside of the building.

"Friends?" Kuro asked curiously.

"Yep! Her name's Nisa! We're going with another friend of hers as well!"

"..." Kuro stopped moving his hand, and the Dogoo managed to bite down the toy and started munching on it, making squishy sound now and then.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Compa saw his not-so-pleasant face and asked in worry.

"Nothing..." He then walked towards the door and opened it, then stood aside. "Ladies first..."

Compa giggled at his politeness. "Thank you, Kuro."

...

"Hey, Compa! You ready to go?" Nisa called the nurse, as she's leaning against her car, with Gust sitting inside.

"Yep!" The nurse happily waved back at the heroine.

"I see... Ehhh..." Nisa then noticed Kuro closing the door for Compa after patting the Dogoo and leaving it in the house, and she pointed her finger towards him. "Is that your patient?"

"Oh, you mean Kuro? No, he's going to join us!" Compa replied with her chirp voice.

"... Are you sure? He's... wait, he's the one saving Planeptune a few days ago, right?"

"Yep! Hey, Kuro! Can you introduce yourself?" Compa stood to the left, so that Kuro and Nisa faced directly.

Kuro bowed lightly to the heroine. "Pleasure...name's Kuro..."

Nisa waved her right hand weakly back for the greeting, then turned to Compa and asked: "No offense, but why did he talk so..."

"It's because of his curse." She explained. "It changes his voice to become like that. We can't really find a way to fix it."

"Really?" Gust pushed her head off the roof of the car. "Wow, he looks scary."

"Hey, Gust. He looks like it, but he's very meek." That caused the man to slightly blush up. "See?"

"Well... I will trust you for that. Get in, you two." With that Nisa walked to the driver seat, and Kuro opened the backseat's door for Compa to enter first before he got in and closed the door.

"SO!" While Nisa's driving, Gust turned back to talk to the duo. "Kuro, I heard you killed the large monster, right? How did you do that?"

"Sharp strings..." That's Kuro's only answer for that.

"... Just that?" Gust deadpanned, hoping that it's something better...

Compa explained: "The strings were created by his dark energy, so it's sharp enough to cut through... maybe everything."

"Dark energy?" Nisa asked. "How did you get it?"

"... Not a good story..."

Gust: "That problematic? Anyway..." She then pulled out a small bottle from her pocket. "Compa, this is the Panacea you asked me to mix. Take it."

"Thanks Gust!" Taking from the alchemist, Compa put it into her own purse. Then she noticed Kuro looking directly into Gust, without any real focus. "Kuro, what's wrong?"

Gust now noticed it, and waved her hands before her eyes. "Kuro? Kuro~..."

Luckily, Kuro has woken up immediately, as he apologized: "Sorry... something... past..."

Nisa asked in confusion: "Past, or passed?"

"That vision again, Kuro? What's it about?" Compa suddenly raised her voice a bit, catching the other duo's attention.

Kuro smiled this time: "A bright day... peaceful... full of light... not much else..."

Compa pouted. "Aw, I thought it could be more..."

"Wait." Gust interrupted. "You can look at the past, Kuro?"

"Randomly... but yes."

Nisa: "So how far can you look at?"

"Not so sure... months...years... decades..." Kuro answered with uncertainty in his voice.

A pregnant silence occurred... then Nisa suddenly said: "Well, let me kick the gear up. Can't tell if those monsters are waiting for us or not."

* * *

Time: 9:30

Location: Virtua Forest

"Vines..." Cutting said things down with his scissors, Kuro grumbled. "Too many..."

"It can't be helped." Nisa said, while punching a mutated plant in the face. "The toxic air has made them grow in too fast pace. Luckily they don't move, or we're going to have another kind of troubles."

Speaking about said air, the alive human had gas masks on.

"And we're currently inside a cave, so those things grow even faster." Gust added.

"Know... still annoying..." Putting one bullet into the chamber, Kuro aimed his revolver towards a wall of vines, channeled Dark Flame into the bullet and shot it out, burning the wall for the group to come forward.

Walking further in, the group's greeted with the light of all kinds of crystals laying everywhere. Kuro picked one up and examined. "... Pure minerals..."

"We can take some of it." Gust started taking a few and dropped it into her pockets. "Hey, Compa. Have you found what you need?"

"Wait a bit... Here we go!" Carefully plucking out a plant of sort, Compa put it into her inventory. "Do you find anything that interested you all? Kuro?"

"No fun..." Kuro's dead tone caused the tension to rise up, as he knelt down on his right knee and picked something up. "Impossible..."

"What did you find?" Nisa walked to him and looked over his shoulder to see a black disc. "Hm? Is that a monster drop?"

"No. Worse." And without letting the others react, he started breaking the disc into pieces, before throwing them into the ground and smashing them with his shoes again. "Run. Now."

"Wait, Kuro. Did you just break..." Compa was a bit surprised about his action, and was about to ask about the item he just broke, then got scared as he pulled out his right revolver and turned it right at her and pulled the trigger... and the bullet flew over her head, hit something that then screeched in pain. She quickly turned back to see red eyes looking down at her, and they belonged to a head of the lower body of a Viral Guard Vermin, which mouth was breathing toxic constantly. The monster then dropped down, revealing its upper half of a human-figure, with a massive broadsword in its hands. Compa was too scared because of the event, and she accidentally fell on her back on instinct of fear. The monster then roared up and jumped up, aiming its legs on her...

Luckily Nisa managed to kick the monster mid-air, sending it to a wall behind it. Kuro took that moment to shoot a few more to keep the Guard Vermin at bay, while Gust started helping Compa standing up. "Okay! Compa, mind telling us what Kuro just broke?"

"That's... an Enemy Disc, used by Deity of Sins to spawn strong monsters!" Compa weakly answered, eyes not losing focus on the monster, as she called out her syringe.

"Not important... run." Kuro ordered the girls as he pointed his fingers towards the exit. The girls nodded and started running while trying to put a few spells on the monster so it won't wake up soon. However, despite all of the spells and bullets, the monster slowly got up and the toxic started raising up, blocking all the attacks as it started taking the chase. "Annoying..." He ran along it and shot at its legs, to no avail of slowing the monster down. He decided to jump on it and stabbed its shoulder, forcing it to stop and try to pry him off. After a few swats, it managed to grab him and threw him towards the ceiling, breaking it and the fabrics fell down with the body of the man.

Kuro managed to aim his fall so that he's still between the girls and the monster. He slowly got up, ignoring the new wounds which were healing up, as he put his scissors in defense position. He was planning to hold it off so the girls could escape...

"Run, Kuro!" He took a little moment to look at the girls, who were standing outside of the exit entrance. "We will deal with it in the future!"

He immediately turned back, just in time to block a swing from the monster. Holding the sword there, Kuro tried to shout back: "Run... will follow soon..." However, due to his constant awareness of souls, he felt the three trying to run to him, so he immediately built up a wall of strings to stop them there. "Go... your life... more important..." Ignoring the screams of the girls, he channeled his Dark power and increased the gravity force surrounding him and the monster. Then, the ground gave in and broke apart, and the two fell down into the darkness pit.

* * *

"DAMN IT!" Nisa screamed again while trying to shoot down the strings, to no avail as it seemed to be too durable. "That idiot! He could have run!"

"..." Compa couldn't say anything, as she stared into the pit the two figures just fell through. It's like before, when Nepgear tried to protect her and IF and run, only that time she also got out with them. This time though, there's no guarantee she could find him...

"Gust thinks we can find another way." Gust said, gaining the others' attention. "Gust felt wind coming from another path of the cave when we entered. Could be another hidden path surrounding here."

"..."

"Compa! Snap out of it!" Nisa shook the girl violently, snapping her out of her daze. "We have to save him now! He can't deal with that monster alone!"

"... Right!" Finally gaining her senses, Compa nodded, and the three started looking for another entrance...

* * *

"GRRR!" The monster's hissing awakened his senses, with his vision returned first for him to see that he's laying on the floor face-up. He then pushed himself up and felt the water dampening his clothes. But that didn't bother him, because he's facing a greater threat now.

He grabbed his scissors on his left, and the revolver in his right (dual revolvers were too risky), and he pointed the gun towards the monster, which was slowly getting up as well. It then roared again, shaking the pit, and it charged towards him with its lower mouth open wide to try to eat him. He quickly rolled to the right to avoid it, and then shot the whole chamber to its face, then switched to his other one immediately. Not even bothered by the bullets, the Vermin swung its sword again and again, forcing Kuro to try and dodge while trying to find a way to efficiently hit it.

'Damn, no way I can get close with this kind of body.' Kuro mentally groaned, before dodging again. 'It will go forever... best to use that again...' Then he tried to call the strings... only for nothing to come up. 'What the? I can't drain all of my Darkness that fast... something is blocking...damn it, water of all things...'

"RRROOOARRRR!" The monster caught him off guard by using its leg to swat him towards a wall, before punching him further into. The lower mouth then opened up again, and this time he used the Fire Bullet to shoot directly into it. The toxic air exploded, blasting the beast out, and drown Kuro into a sea of fire, burning his remaining skin and nearly reducing his bones to ash if he's not protected by his remaining Darkness.

The body of his fell down to the water floor, the burning still there until his body drifted into a deeper location, sunk down a bit to wash the fire away. Once he felt the fire vanished, Kuro swam to higher place, lifting his body off the water body, and stood straight up.

The beast's lower body has been blown up, leaving the upper body to try to crawl to him and slash him. Unfortunately, the explosion drained its life force away, and its viral state dispelled. In its last attempt, it raised its sword up, only for the grip to lose immediately and fall to the floor, and the beast slowly died...

Kuro started checking to see if he got any bullets left, only to feel none. "Out... melee then..." Putting the revolvers to the strap properly and picking up the bag (it left his back after the fall), Kuro tried to find if the thing that stopped his strings was still around... then, he felt it, in a dark alley, which was the only way for him to exit. 'I can't even see the light on the top, which means this pit is too far below.'

Walking into the dark alley, he didn't bother to use any flames, because it could stop him from finding a real light. After a few minutes of walking aimlessly and quietly, he saw a purple light ahead. 'Of all colors...' Not thinking much more, Kuro took a turn where the light was shining...

And he's greeted by a floating purple orb, stationing in an isolated corner. He didn't speak a word, as he slowly approached it...

"Don't come closer." He immediately stopped, as the orb started speaking. "Vile creature. You might look like human, but I'm not going to be deceived by it. Turn away now, or I will end your life."

Not going to anger it, Kuro slowly backed away a bit as his reply for it. Then, he asked: "Exit?"

... "I'm not telling you."

... "Why?"

"Why what?"

"My power... you stopped?"

"I have nothing to do with your fight."

"...Thanks." He bowed to the Mascot, then he turned back and walked into the darkness, trying to track down what has hindered his power...

* * *

Time: 11:00

Location: Surface of Virtua Forest

"You found anything?" Nisa shouted out.

"Nothing looks like entrance at all!" Gust shouted back.

"..." Compa just kept looking in silence, not caring about the shouting from her friends.

"Hey, Compa! Be careful, you're a bit near the cliff..." Gust warned the nurse, as the alchemist got closer a bit.

"... Yeah..." Not really taking the danger, Compa kept looking for their objective...

"Okay, we have to stop now." Nisa, seeing that Compa's clearly not herself now, ordered. Then she shook the nurse a bit. "Look, that guy can't die, right? We just have to find a way to get him out, that's all we have to do."

"..."

"What's wrong?" Pulling the girl to a better location, Nisa put the girl down under a tree, as Nisa and Gust sat next to her. "You just met him days ago, right? You couldn't really have any sort of..."

"It's not that, Nisa." Compa spoke up, interrupting the heroine. "When he felt with that monster... it reminded me the time when we lost Nepgear... the time when she disappeared without leaving a note... I... I don't want it to happen to anyone else..." Tears started rolling on her face. "People I have met... people I haven't... they died to the monsters. Everyday, news after news... I can't bear it, but I have to..."

"Shhhhh..." Gust stopped the girl's monologue by putting her hand on Compa's lips. "It's okay, Gust understands. We have to accept it, even when we hate to face it. Kuro is strong, right? We don't really have to fear him being killed by that monster, right?"

"She's right." Nisa agreed. "He has an advantage we don't have, and I'm sure he will be fine with it." She then patted the girl's shoulder. "Let's continue for a bit more, then we return. I'm sure he knows the way to come back to Planeptune..."

* * *

Time: 12:00

Location: Underground

'Is it because I'm too slow, or the maze is freaking big and confusing?' He has been wandering for hours inside this. Every single turn was filled with darkness, and for a while, he could see the purple light coming from the Mascot. 'Come to think of it, I couldn't even use my strings to... and there's no guarantee she's speaking the truth... Yep, curse my innocence and immaturity.'

The moment he found that light again, he stopped wandering around and headed straight to it, to see the floating was still there. Not going to outburst his frustration, he calmly asked: "Why?"

"For a monster, you have quite a lot of patience."

"Why?" He asked again, not bothered with her rants.

"... You don't want to go around anymore, I see. Very well then. I was testing you to see who you are. You are a monster, I won't change my opinion. However, it seems you still have your normal senses with you. You even risked your... escape route to hold the other monster. Now, tell me, why would you want to return? People won't see you as a normal person..."

"Don't care." Kuro interrupted. "Want people happy... don't need to return... monsters or human... ideal matters..."

"... I guess I might have judged you too fast. Very well then." Then the underground shook a bit. "Don't worry. I just opened a hidden wall. There, you will find a portal leading you back to the main entrance."

"Thanks." Kuro bowed gracefully, before turning...

"Before you go." Kuro turned back, and saw a small light orb floating off the Mascot and came to him. "A memory fragment, of the last CPU..."

Kuro let the orb gently descend on his bone hand, and it absorbed itself into him, gaining him the memory of CPU speaking to the Mascot years ago... Then, Kuro said: "Not her fault... Deity of Sins... But... human changes... Can't satisfy all..." Kuro then nodded again to the Mascot, before heading out...

Once he returned, he saw one part of the walls has lowered down, revealing a small N-Gear on a pillar with a small button next to the device. Kuro grabbed it and started it up... to see it started scrolling through images of the past, when the girl was still trying to save the world and her sisters... in every picture, the smile never faltered...

When it ended, Kuro put it into his bag, then grabbed the button, but he noticed a message under it:

'If you want to return, miss Mascot, use this.'

"..." If it's made for the Mascot, then he shouldn't use it. He put it back down, then looked up to the endless darkness of the ceiling. He tried to call out his strings, and luckily it worked this time. He then made the strings knit together until there's a stable step for him to walk him. Multiple of them, and he got himself a made-up stair. "Simple... time-consuming..." He sighed, then started taking the walk up, strings disappearing after each step to reduce the power consumption. 'The girls are going to kill me, again, for leaving them like that.'

* * *

"So he left it for me... he is an interesting individual... he could be the new ruler of the world... who knows..."

* * *

Time: 12:30

Location: Surface of Virtua Forest

"... I failed Histy..." Compa repeated the words for a third time like a robot.

"I told you it's not your fault!" Nisa nearly screamed at how nearly broken the nurse was. "Geez, it's just a few hours. But that Kuro didn't really think that it could give us more troubles..."

"Gust thinks he just wanted us to be saved." The alchemist commented, while checking on the stuffs she has managed to pick up. Currently the girls were in the car, as Nisa tried to call the Basilicom to tell what happened. "He didn't care about himself..."

"..." The nurse stopped speaking again, dropping the atmosphere to silence again...

"Yeah, the guy's currently missing. Maybe we have to call someone to find him. We don't really..." Fixing the rear-view mirror, Nisa took a quick look in it... "... He found us. Call you later." Closing her phone, Nisa shouted to Compa: "HEY! Your boyfriend returned! Go and greet him already!"

"...Huh?" The nurse asked back in confusion, then she turned back by following Nisa's pointing... "KURO!"

The girls got out of the car and rushed to the cripple man, with Compa managing to tackle him to the ground. "Kuro! We're so scared when we lost you! How could you leave us like that?" She started hiccuping, as tears got out of her eyes again.

"...Sorry..." The man didn't really know what to say, so he gently patted her back to comfort her. "Here... with you now..."

"Jeez, Compa cried her eyes out because you reminded her of her friends, you know?" Nisa scowled at him, though she's glad on the inside that he's not dead... again.

"Sorry again... things occurred..."

"Hey, what happened to the monster?" Gust asked. "Did you cut it off your tail or..."

"Dead... Toxic air... fire... explosion..."

"Wait, that breath can be detonated? I should have aimed my gun at its lower mouth instead!" Nisa shouted in frustration, clearly not knowing about that fact.

Compa wiped her tears and tried to regain her voice: "But... but if you killed it... you could have... returned immediately... right?"

Kuro shook his head, grabbed her arms and slowly pushed both of them up. "Stories... in the car... people waiting... food..."

And immediately, Compa's stomach growled, causing her to hold it with her hands in embarrassment. That caused Nisa and Gust to giggle, since the tension has gone through smoothly. Gust then pointed to the car and said: "Let's get inside and drive back to the tour. We have all the time to talk before we hit lunch."

* * *

Time: 17:00

Location: Planeptune's Basilicom

"Nepgear and the Mascot..." Histoire spoke up those names, as she received the N-Gear from Compa, who got it from Kuro during the ride. "He was tested by the later, that's why he couldn't get out sooner... and he didn't use the Eject Button either..."

"Well, at least now we have proofs that we're not fighting against her. Nepgear never wanted any of this to happen." IF stacked up some of the papers on the table. "If he didn't risk his... well-being, then we might not even..."

"Don't say it like that, IF!" The nurse scowled the agent. "I don't want any of us to... to..." She can't say those words out loud, but IF and Histoire understood.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that. But, we're very lucky to have him... But the Mascot was a bit paranoid, with a good reason..."

"She saw many things, so she has to be." Histoire defended. "About the herbs..."

"I got it, and I gave it to the research quarter already."

"Thanks again, Compa. And thank you, IF. You can rest now."

Once the human waved goodbye to her and got out of the room, Histoire dropped down to the table and looked at the N-Gear with the pictures on the screen. "Is it a coincidence, or is it fate, that brought him to this world? However... from what Compa told me, Kuro wasn't surprised when he met the Mascot. Is it the said Vision Of The Past... or is it something else? And the Enemy Disc again... The Deity of Sins is truly behind all what happened after Nepgear disappeared... I must tell this to the other Oracles..."


	6. Chapter 6

"Nepgear's N-Gear?"

"Kuro has recovered it after a material-gather mission with Compa. It was hidden where the Mascot is currently in."

"Who is this Kuro, Histoire? A new member of Guild?"

"He... is nobody. He isn't from Gamindustri."

"Then why is he here?"

"He couldn't decide where he would end up to. He just stranded up to our place."

"And now he's helping you to..."

"I am asking him to stay a bit due to his wounds, but he said that he's going to all of the nations to help you all."

"... That sounds surreal. He has no reasons to help us."

"He said he did because he didn't want to see anyone to die against Darkness."

... "Did he say where he would head next?"

"That actually depends on your nation's situation. He will go where you need the most."

"Lastation is still in an okay condition."

"Same to Lowee."

"I want to say the same, but... our morale kinda goes down a bit..."

"Then it's settled. I will ask Kuro to go to your place first, Chika."

"Thanks. Anyway, can you give me the picture of his appearance?"

"... If your people scream at someone in fear, he might be in that place."

* * *

"Lean...box?" Kuro asked in curiosity.

"Yes. That's our next destination." IF opened her can of coffee before continuing: "Histoire said that they're in a little pickle, so we head there first before any other nations."

"...Why?"

"Um, IF already said it. We need to..." Kuro interrupted Compa by pointing to the ground, meaning to ask why they were where they were. "Oh. IF thought it would be better to cover you up a bit, so that the people of Leanbox won't be scared."

"Hey, it's not our fault you look like a monster. No offense."

"None taken."

A few seconds later, a worker walked to them with a set of clothes in her hands. "A mask, a pair of gloves, a jacket, a hat... We were thinking you're heading to Lowee instead of Leanbox if we didn't see whom you're buying for."

IF sighed. "I know. Here." The Agent gave her credit card to the worker, so she could take it to the clerk to check.

During the time they're waiting for the card, Kuro quickly put on the clothes on. In no time, his appearance looked more pleasant to watch: His black jeans and shoes were clean before they got here, his bloody parts of the shirt was covered by the black jacket, his hands were covered with the white gloves, the mask which looked like a cat face covered his horrifying face, with the fedora completing the set.

IF giggled in relief. "That really makes you look like a shady business man. But it looks better than you with your first look."

Compa: "You look quite good in it, Kuro."

"...Thanks..." Even though the mask's on, they could see the boy being lightly embarrassed hearing the words being stuttered a bit.

"Here you go, miss IF." The worker returned to give her the credit card.

"Okay, we're all set. Let's head to Leanbox."

* * *

Time: 10:00

The boat rode quickly on the sea, but it would take at least another hour to reach the shore of Leanbox. Kuro took the moment to check on the nation through the newspaper. The result: as bad as he thought.

"Chika's still not over what Nepgear had done..." IF talked about the Oracle of Leanbox. "With that, the nation kinda went down like her mood..."

"..." Kuro didn't answer, but he did give a thought about it.

"Hey, if you can, try to talk to her. Finding a way to snap her out of her mind, okay?"

"...This?" Kuro asked her, as he pointed towards his mouth.

Compa: "Chika wouldn't probably hear us anymore. Along with Falcom..."

"I'm not really close to her." The traveler said with uncertainty.

"And you might have a way to talk her out, given the two weeks we're in Planeptune."

"...This?" Kuro asked again.

IF quirked her eyebrows. "What do you... oh, you mean your voice?" A nod was his reply. "Don't worry. At least you didn't sound like Trick."

"Come to think of it, you did say you have a younger sister, right?" Compa then remembered about the time Kuro talked a bit about his family.

"...Yes."

"Then you must have some ways to comfort her, right?" IF understood what Compa was implying.

"...Not much..."

Falcom: "Just do your best. We will help you as well."

"...Will try."

* * *

Time: 14:00

Location: Leanbox Basilicom

"You arrived." Chika greeted the group, with her coldness obvious emitting through her words, especially towards IF. "I hope you brought the device."

"Here you go." Falcom pulled out the device and gave it to Chika. "We already set the record you need."

"Thanks. Can I ask you to eliminate some of the monsters in the east? It's not really difficult, but..."

"That's why we are here, to help your nation." IF said. "Though, we're gonna need more details than that. What kind of monsters are they?"

"... Most were wolves. But their leader was something we never saw. Probably something like the monster you faced before..." She then noticed Kuro standing behind Falcom. "You were the one just arriving to this world and killed that one, huh?" Receiving a nod, Chika concluded: "That's much I could say. You can ask the military to know more."

"Then we should do a scout first to measure its strength. Kuro, you stay here." And without another words, the group left, leaving Kuro with a surprised Chika there.

"Hey wait! Don't you need him to..." But they're already gone. She then turned to Kuro, who just shrugged, and she sighed. "It would be rude if I didn't show you your room. This way, please."

...

Time: 14:30

"..." Chika has seen Nepgear's apology message... And she's quite enraged by it. "YOU COULDN'T JUST LEAVE A MESSAGE LIKE THAT! IF YOU FELT GUILTY BY DOING SO, THEN DON'T DO IT FROM THE BEGINNING! IF YOU THOUGHT THIS IS ENOUGH, THEN YOU'RE WRONG!" Throwing the device aside, the Oracle slammed her hands on her table, as her tears flowed out after two years of being dried out. "GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER!"

"Loud." Hearing a creepy voice in her room, Chika raised her head up to see the masked man sitting on the chair right at the other side of the table.

"...How long were you here?" Wiping her tears out, Chika tried to regain her professional posture.

"Ten minutes."

"...So you have heard what she said." She then slammed her hands again. "Could you believe what she said? If her mind couldn't stand it, then she shouldn't do it..."

"Necessary... not mean good..." Kuro replied with his slightly distorted voice due to the mask.

"...Why did you even wear like that? It makes you look like a shady business man."

"Already noted... Green Heart... important to you..."

"Of course she is! She is like a sister to me..." Trying to calm herself down, she started recalling her past: "I always look up for her, trying my best to help her at anytime. Even when she's busy and not really know how to do it, she also tried her best to be with me when I'm not at good conditions. I tried to be the best sister she could call for..."

"Blind." Kuro suddenly interrupted. Chika's eyes twitched a bit when she heard that. "Not bad. Still, not good. Didn't know... whole."

After a few seconds trying to decode it, Chika realized: "You're saying I didn't know her at all?"

"Not all. Much, not everything."

"So? It's not that you knew about her. You were just arrived..."

"Lost her deal... accepted fate..."

"...What are you talking about?"

"Green Heart... dealt... life or power... lost to Purple Sister... accepted death..."

"YOU WASN'T EVEN... wait, Histoire mentioned that you can look into the past... Vision Of The Past, or something?

Kuro nodded. "Share lost... Green Heart... no match... no other solution..."

"THERE HAD TO BE! THEY DIDN'T LOOK DEEP ENOUGH!"

"Deity of Sins... too close...Not matter anymore..."

"What?" Chika was now on the point of wanting to murder someone.

"Present... monsters... people relied on you... their current leader... you down... Leanbox dead...Can't be forever..."

"...Please, leave now." Seeing that Chika's not accepting yet. Kuro stood up and walked out of the room. When he closed the door, he leaned his back on it, as he listened to Chika starting to destroy stuffs in the room. The maids coming nearby were startled by it, and Kuro put one of fingers on the mouth part of the mask, signalling to not come in, so they took it and slowly went away, trying to ignore what happened in that room. Most of her words were cursing Nepgear, and some towards the man himself about trying to be high-and-mighty. Can't blame her for that.

When it's over, Kuro opened the door and quickly closed it when he headed in, and he saw the room completely wrecked, with the woman panting heavily after her rampage. "Better?"

"... Not really..." Not looking up, Chika answered.

Kneeling down next to her, Kuro slowly put his right hand on her head and gently rubbed her head. "Must be done... not necessary good..." Stopping a bit, he continued: "Happened to me... died for the others..."

"... You died? I thought you were lying..."

"*Head shake* Truth... Hurt, but must witness... your love... prove it... protect her nation... hold her legacy at heart... make her proud... as her sister..."

Pulling his hand, he waited patiently for her answer... "Thanks for talking to me... Everyone kept saying those words to me, but I refused them... maybe my hatred towards them..."

"Not bad people... time challenged everyone... has to make choices... don't blame..."

"...I guess you're right... maybe I need to rethink about this... thanks again."

"No worry." He then looked around the room and let out a small chuckle. "Solutions?"

"I...will just call some maids." Then she asked: "Couldn't you just put out a bit of your clothes out? You look like you're heading to Lowee."

"... Don't want to scare..."

The Oracle raised her eyebrow. "It couldn't be that bad, right?"

"...Ask Planeptune... to know..."

* * *

Two hours later

"Hurt..." Kuro asked in concern, as the group returned.

"It's no big deal." IF assured him. "We just dealt with the wolves. That leader though, you might have to try to kill it instantly. It could heal even faster than the one in Planeptune."

"... Die?"

"We just hit-and-ran, so we only got a few injured. No serious wounds." Falcom said. "This is actually more productive than I thought."

Kuro nodded, and started to head out before Compa stopped him. "Please be careful. We didn't want another heart attack like before, okay?"

"... *Nod*." And with that, the military transporter drove away, taking Kuro with it to the monster's location.

...All the smiles dropped instantly after the transporter vanished from afar. IF was the first one to say: "Kuro was going to be angry at us..."

"For what?" Chika suddenly walked towards to the girls from the behind, nearly giving Compa a heart attack.

"CHIKA!" The nurse shouted in a high pitch voice, and then tuned it down immediately. "Sorry..."

"What did you hide from him?" Chika asked again, a bit serious and angry.

"...Chika, we didn't lie. We all got out alive, your soldiers with us as well. The previous patrol, however..."

"...I see." Chika sighed. "May their souls be in peace."

"I take it Kuro talked some senses into you?" Falcom immediately noticed the change of the Oracle.

"Kind of. He did show me about the deal, and I guess I have to accept my sister's choice."

"And you just ignored everything we said..." IF scowled.

"My apology then. For now, let's head inside and hope Kuro would success."

* * *

Later

"Sorry dude, can't go further. Goddesses bless you."

"To you too." Getting out of the transporter, Kuro walked towards where the monster was assumed to be. And he was definitely walking in the right direction, as he started smelling the blood... human blood. 'Did the girls trick me... no, there's no reason.' Activating his VOTP, he saw what happened in the location... and sighed in relief that, her group were indeed all alive. 'So the blood of the previous fallen... may your souls rest in peace.'

A few more minutes, and he reached the place, where a monster roared instantly when it saw him. Its lower half was of a giant lion, and its upper part was similar to human figure, with its head being a bull. Its lower body's back had a pair of enormous eagle's wings, and its 'hands' were wielding a sledgehammer. Difficulty? Around A-Rank to S-Rank.

Pulling his scissors out, Kuro slowly walked towards it with caution. The moment he's within its reach, the monster swung its hammer towards him, forcing him to block it, however it managed to lift him off the ground, sending him towards a large tree, which stopped his flight while receiving cracks on its body. Not taking his eyes off the monster, Kuro saw it charging at him, forcing him to jump to another tree, and with that, a bunch of trees were lifted off the ground and fell due to the attack. Holding himself up on the tree, he replaced his scissors with the revolver and shot the monster a few times. All hit, but the bullets were immediately pushed out of the body and the wounds started healing up instantly.

'Have to find its core, quick. Its head is definitely not the core when...' Jumping towards another tree, he kept shooting the monster to try to find any weak points. 'It doesn't bother to cover it.'

Calling out his strings, he wrapped them around its left legs and snatched it out, making the monster stop temporary and fall to the left. Though, as he suspected, the legs healed back in no time, and it started charging towards him again. Decided to take direct aboard, he jumped off the tree and braced himself against the charge, with Darkness fortifying his body to endure the force. The result? The monster changed its attack midway, and it swung the hammer right on him, forcing him to cross his arms over his head and block the attack, and the ground cracked due to the force.

'This thing has intelligence? Really?' Destroying its arms with the strings, the hammer fell harmlessly on the ground, and Kuro jumped on its back and stabbed where the heart could be, however, despite stabbing through its body, the monster didn't die as it started thrashing while trying to grab him. Eventually it succeeded and threw him away. Falling to the ground, Kuro tried to get rid of the blood, while watching the hole closing. '...Don't tell me it's the freaking hammer?' Trapping the monster in a barrier cage of strings, Kuro slowly walked towards the hammer and tried to wield it, but he couldn't mutter the strength to even lift it. 'So I have two choices. Use the Darkness to wield it and try to kill the monster with its weapon, or... destroy the weapon with the risk of it actually not the core...'

With the chance of the later choice being succeeded was fifty fifty, he picked the first one. He channeled his power and slowly lifted the hammer up, and the moment the strings were gone, he jumped up high and slammed the weapon right on the monster's head, luckily killed it instantly. And then he saw it: its head was actually been covered with a see-through helmet, so it looked like there's nothing to cover its head. '... What kind of monster could develop such uniqueness?'

The corpse and the hammer then faded into data squares, and then there's no trace of said monster anymore. "... Done..." Pocketing his weapons, he slowly walked back to where the transporter was waiting...

"So you managed to kill two of the beasts. Impressive for a dead man like you." Frozen, Kuro slowly turned his head back in fear. That voice... "I can't let you walk around freely. Time to die, again."

* * *

"Holy... Quick, contact the Guild and Basilicom now! We got a Code Red situation!"

* * *

"I'm worried..." Compa said, concerning for Kuro's safety.

"He will be fine. I mean, he's dead already, so if he failed, we would just have to pull him out and let him rest." IF didn't really scare as much as her friend.

"Still, to make sure, we should head back. He might need our..."

"Madam Oracle!" One of the soldiers busted in, interrupting Falcom's words. "We got a Code Red situation! Our group that went with the guy before detected CFW Magic!"

That made everyone drop whatever they're doing, and Chika immediately shouted: "Impossible! I thought all the CFWs are dead!"

"Madam, that's the truth. However, it seemed Magic didn't have a body, as she looked like a ghost or so..."

"Her soul might still cling on the world..." Falcom guessed the situation.

"Soul or not, Kuro's in danger! We have to help him now!"

* * *

"A bit disappointed that you don't scream. But no matter." Magic smirked as she grabbed Kuro's legs and threw him towards a mountain nearby, causing a shake of said terrain and rocks dropped on his head, completely burying him under. Calling out dark energy orbs, Magic blasted it right where Kuro was, creating a huge explosion and kicking up the dirt.

When the dirt flew away, the woman saw Kuro with his new clothes shredded, the half left of the mask has broken, revealing the skeleton face of him. Pulling his left revolver out, he released the whole chamber towards the woman, but the bullets were only in physical realm, so they went through her like they're nothing. Seeing no other choice, he used his strings to stop her in track, while he tried to push himself up.

"Interesting... those attacks could have rendered anyone to be immobilized. I guess your death has its own perks." Calling Dark Spear, she threw it right at his heart, causing him to drop the strings while his free hands tried to pull himself off the spear that pinched him to the mountain. However, a few more came to him: two hit his thighs, two hit his shoulders, one right at his throat. Due to the physical wounds, even his soul can't mutter the muscle to move anymore. The woman floated to him and raised her scythe up, ready to cut his head in half. "Any last words?" Seeing the symbol stopped moving in the left eye socket, she decided it to be a no. "So be it, time to..." A bullet suddenly flew through her head, and she turned to see who did so. "Ah, you little girls with the CPUs before... you really want to die that you come here again..."

"You're not going to kill anyone today!" IF shouted in anger, as everyone started shooting at the CFW, but all projectiles just went straight through her, some accidentally hit Kuro but he paid them no mind. "Compa, Falcom and I will distract her. Try to get Kuro out of here!" Pulling out her qatars, she and Falcom ran forwards and clashed their weapons against Magic's, but the CFW just swung her scythe and pushed both of them back. Not giving up, IF tried to stab her, but the woman just side-stepped and dodged the hit. Falcom hit the woman on the back, but the wings just blocked the attack with no problem. IF and Falcom continuously attacked, but other than distracting the woman, no real damages could be seen.

Meanwhile, Comp has reached Kuro, and she attempted to pull the spears out, but the moment she touched one, her hand nearly burnt up as she immediately pulled out. "Ouch! I can't touch it!"

'Then grab my hand.' Kuro's voice suddenly echoed in her mind, but with no value of creepiness and coldness. 'Put my hand on one, and when I grab it, pull it out.'

"But your hands..."

'Already damaged enough already. Just do it.'

"O...Okay..." Hesitantly, Compa followed the order, and when Kuro's hand held tightly on the spear on his right shoulder, she tried to pull out, but found out it to be extremely difficult. Luckily, Kuro tried to pull with her as well, but the process was extremely long. It took at least a minute to pull that spear out, and when it fell to the ground, Compa looked at Kuro's hand to see it was burnt to the last degree. Extremely worried, she tried to look around to see if she could use anything to...

'This is nothing, Compa. Continue.'

"It's not okay! You can't just..."

'IF and Falcom are in danger. We can't afford to waste any...' Some other Hunters have joined in the fight, but they didn't make any better process. Seeing that, with his right hand being able to work properly, he started grabbing the spear on his left shoulder and yanking it out...

"Foolish." Creating an explosion around her, Magic pushed everyone off her. "For one dead man, you put the faith too much on him." The woman then started floating up higher, and started channeling her destruction spell. "I will show you what death feels like!" The spell was released in a form of Darkness Sphere to the ground, creating a massive destruction scene beneath her... And yet, when the effect went away, she was surprised to see nothing was affected by the spell... Except when she saw Kuro, she let out a hysterical laugh. "You foolish boy! You brought your own demise!"

Compa, after cowering down, didn't feel the pain coming to her. However, when she heard what the CFW said, she looked at the dead man and widened her eyes in terror. His body was completely burnt up, to the point no parts of his body was spared. His old clothes somehow was still intact, but that would just add up to the terror. His head has hung down, not moving at all. With the remain three spears, it looked like he's being hung to death.

"No! Kuro!" Compa fell on her knees, her hands were covering her mouth to nullify the voice she's making. He just took all the damages to himself and his body, and now he's good as a rag doll.

"Your own selflessness caused your own death." Descending down, Magic slowly walked towards the duo. "Now, to you girl... if you want to live, then you better listen to my words. Or else."

However, the moment she finished, she felt something constricting her movements, preventing her from getting closer. She tried to mutter any power of her, and ended up with nothing. "What's going on?"

"E...Ehehe..." Everyone startled when the laugh came up, and then they found that it came from the body of Kuro, which now started shaking uncontrollably and healing rapidly. The laugh then got louder, and they knew why they're scared by it: It's not Kuro's voice, but one of a young girl. One very crazy young girl. "AHAHAHA! Kuro, oh our little Kuro. Even after you died, you didn't give up in protecting the livings." The skeleton hand grabbed on the spear on the throat and yanked it out with one swift move, surprising everyone. "Even with a little of the power in you, you didn't hesitate to throw everything out." The one on the left thigh was out. "Even helping the ones murdering the people you're protecting." Once the right one was out, 'Kuro' dropped on the ground on 'his' feet, and 'he' raised 'his' head and faced the woman with 'his' terrifying smile. "So you're the one annoying our Kuro. Well bad news to you: you hurt him, and you face our torment."

During the time, Magic tried to free herself from whatever was binding her. Then, her ghostly body suddenly vanished little by little, following with immense pain that she has never felt before, causing her to scream in agony. "WHAT...WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

"You have wondered why Kuro never screamed, right? Because he has felt worse than what you gave to him. What you're experiencing now is just a tiny corner of it." The scream of the evil woman got even louder as more of her disappeared. "Kuro is not present now, but if I'm him, I would say this: Farewell."

Everyone had to cover their ears, as the last scream got into the highest pitch and the soul exploded one last time. And then, the dead silence was the domain in the area for a while...

"K...Kuro... is that... you?" Compa muttered a few words out, extremely scared of what she just saw.

'Kuro' turned back, and while Compa's somewhat used to the face, she was taken back by the terrified smile. Then, the smile somewhat... softened, and turned to be a childish smile. "My apology. We just managed to connect to Kuro after he took that spell by himself. He's currently resting, so I take control for a bit."

Now, while they're still a bit spooked, all sighed in relief that Kuro was resting and not die... again. Then, IF got close and asked: "If you could destroy a person like that, then why didn't you..."

"He got disconnected to the source of his power when he reached this universe." 'Kuro' answered before IF could finish the question. "Only when he's knocked out because of the attack, would we manage to reach him and connect it back."

Falcom continued: "We saw he killed a monstrous beast before without dropping a sweat..."

"I checked his memory. He already lost a lot of power after that. He could convert some, but after a few powerful attacks, he's wasted." 'He' then walked towards IF and suddenly hugged the girl much to everyone's surprise. "Take care of him for us. He will answer your questions when he wakes up, okay?"

"HEY HEY HEY! What do you think you're doing?" IF stuttered and tried to push Kuro's body out, but his arms already wrapped around her neck, not really easy to pry out. Though, after a few seconds, she could hear the steady breathing of him, and she took a look at his injured face to see his right eye already closed, the only thing she could see in his face was peace. "... So that person, whoever she is..."

"I will take him out." Managing to pry Kuro out of the Agent, Falcom put the body of the man, which weight somehow reduced to a feather. "Let's go back and rest. Two beasts were probably too much for him... We can get the answers in the future."

And with that, the military group and Hunter group of Leanbox, and the travelers returned back to the main city, where they could take a place to rest.


	7. Chapter 7

Time: ?

Location: Heavenly Host, Infirmary

"Urgh..." Kuro grunted, feeling the hollows of the wounds he received from Magic's attacks. The pain eventually subdued, and he could move his fingers now. Once his senses returned, he opened his eyes and saw a familiar broken ceiling. "Heaven..."

"He's awake!" He turned to his right to see a curtain, which got opened as four children ran to the bed he's lying on. The girl with black hair and red dress asked in worry: "Kuro, are you okay? That attack knocked you out for days!"

'Days?' Trying to sit up, he felt a little pain in his right shoulder, as he looked down to see a light glowing through his clothes. 'What is it?'

"Your Light side." Kuro looked back to Sachiko. "After that attack, it seemed to trigger a new power for you."

'New skills?' Not feeling to talk normally, Kuro kept using the telepathy.

"Your influences in Gamindustri helped with that." Kuro looked up to see Yoshie walking to him, with a flower held in her hands. "And this is one of the result."

The dead teacher placed the flower in his lap, and he recognized it to be a lotus. 'A lotus... haven't seen one in a while... How many days have I been out again?'

"Three days." Yuki answered. "The girls are very worried about your conditions. Luckily Sachiko has taken control and told them to calm down."

'Thanks.' Using his right hand, Kuro gently patted the girl's head, earning a giggle from her. 'Guess I should go back now. You all take care of yourself. And... thanks for saving the people of Gamindustri.'

"You're welcome!" The kids replied at once, wearing a happy smile on their faces. Even the dead teacher gave him a warm smile as well.

"Take care of yourself as well. And do what you believe it's true."

* * *

Time: 07:00

Location: Leanbox's Basilicom, Guest Room

"That idiot... This is the second time already..." IF walked into the Basilicom, heading to check on the dead man "He made everyone worry about him more than Neptune herself..." After greeting the guards, IF headed straight to where the dead man's body were placed. "He should better wake up now, or..."

"Morning..." The moment she opened the door, she saw the person sitting on the bed, his right hand holding a pink flower while his other was patting the cheerfully Dogoo.

"Oh, morning Kuro... YOU'RE AWAKE?" Registering the situation, IF shouted at the last part.

"Yes...Sorry..." He gave her an apologetic smile, indicating the troubles he gave the girls after he passed out.

"You should be! Do you have any ideas how scared we were back then? Especially Compa!" Quickly walking into the room, IF gave him a knock to the head for his reckless actions.

"... Sorry..." He repeated. "...Thanks."

"For what?"

"Saving me...from Magic..." The lotus then disintegrated into faint light before Kuro asks, through telepathy: 'Where is everyone, IF?'

A bit surprised by how he changed the way to talk, IF answered: "Probably still in bed. We have taken turns to look after you." Seeing his head hang down in guilt, she immediately said: "Hey, it's at least what we can do, after you protected us and the environment from that attack." Then the agent grabbed his arm and pulled him off the bed. "Now you're awake, let's tell everyone after breakfast, shall we?"

* * *

Time: 08:30

Location: Leanbox's Basilicom, Meeting Room

"Thank you again, for protecting our people." Chika expressed everyone's gratitude towards Kuro. "If it's not for you, Magic might have destroyed Leanbox and killed everyone with it."

'It's no problem.' The man replied. 'Although, the credit should be for Sachiko. She's the one ending Magic, not me.'

"Speaking of that..." Falcom asked curiously. "Who's the one controlling the body while you're not... you? And she did mention that they were taking care of your soul at... somewhere? Mind telling us a little bit about it?"

'... I can, but... you're not liking the story...'

After explaining the stuffs, he received various responses: IF has gone outside to throw up, Compa tried to hold back with a green face, Falcom rubbed her temples, trying to not imagine the images too specifically, and Chika didn't have any of that surprisingly. The agent returned a few moment later with a pale face, and asked the Oracle: "H...How are you still okay with that Chika?"

"Have played a lot of horror games. It's expected." Chika nonchalantly answered. She then turned to Kuro. "I don't know if that's your braveness or idiocy to help people you don't know in the first place. But, I guess that could lead you here and help us. No offense."

'None taken. About the days I was unconscious...'

The Oracle summarized: "After we found out that Magic returned, and then got killed for sure, we suspected that the other Felons could be wandering as well, so I called the other Oracles to warn them. Right now all nations are on high alert, and the security gets really tight..."

'That's a right thing to do.' Kuro nodded understandably.

"And you're not being registered yet." Chika finished.

'... So, I have nowhere to go, EXCEPT the Basilicom?' Kuro raised his right eyebrow, not expecting that to happen.

"Well, to be fair, you're not Gamindustri. But, we can try to make an exception for you... and MAYBE make you one of us." Chika offered.

'...Thanks for that, miss Chika. Though, I don't like picking a nationality in this matter...'

"Like she said, you're an exception." IF said. "Some of the Guild Agents also black-marked their files so they could travel more freely. Not me, by the way."

"Besides, you don't know anything about our Goddesses, so putting you into any nations would be unfair." Falcom supported the idea.

'So it's settled, huh? What else do I need to know, everyone?' Kuro understood the situation, and asked for another matters.

"Well, your clothes. We're going to buy another." Compa pointed at his current clothes, being the one when he arrived. "And some potions, so you won't be burnt out soon."

To respond to that, Kuro's tattoo shone up, catching everyone's attention, as he raised his right hand up and a lotus appeared. 'It seemed that, after that fight, I gained myself a healing spell. But I don't exactly know when I gained it during these three days.'

IF asked him to hold the lotus, and Kuro agreed. Once her hands touched the flower, a rush of energy ran into her, and in a small moment, she took a deep breath. "Ah, now that's refreshing after that story."

"Really? Can I feel it too?" Compa got curious and got near the girl, who totally agreed to share.

Meanwhile, Kuro held the scissors in his right hand and tried to use his left hand to call out another lotus, but ended up with nothing. "No left..."

"A picky spell, isn't it?" Falcom said, earning a nod from him. "Anyway, let's head to our next destination: the clothes store."

'Don't you have anywhere else to go? I could try to...' Kuro was a bit shy about the girls leading him to go shopping.

"Hey, that outfit of yours from before looked like you're heading to Lowee. Even if you didn't feel anything, we felt hot just looking at you." The man couldn't argue with that.

'So the 'shady business man' won't work anymore... I might have an idea, but... Chika, do you know any hackers around?'

* * *

Time skip, afternoon

Location: Gamestore

"What to choose, what to choose..." CC2 looked at the shelf where the open-world games were placed. She just finished a 'demon killing' game, and she's planning to relax a bit with a game with decent story in it. "Let's see... Not this one... I finished this already... hmm...huh?" She then noticed a new person also searching the same shelf. He wore black jeans with a white leather sleeveless jacket, a grey hoodie and white gloves. His face was covered with a mask and a visor so she couldn't see his face clearly. However, the look of that guy reminded her of: "Wrench?"

"Hm?" A robotic tone responded to her, as the person turned. "Oh hello miss. You're looking for something here?"

"... Now that's a nice cosplay." CC2 applauded. "Are you trying to impress someone?"

"Ah no. I just like the character." The mask then changed to ~.~, just like the one in the game.

"Quality cosplay." CC2 commented. "Anyway, the name's Cyberconnect2. What's yours?"

"Kuro." The man replied. "Say, you're here often?"

"Kinda. You're looking for a new game?"

"Yep." !.! to ^.^ "Need something to refresh after days of work."

"Well... I don't really know myself, considering I play a lot... oh right! A new fighting game just came out! You can try it out." CC2 pointed towards a 'new games' shelf just a bit further from where they stood.

"Thanks!" With a ;) face, the man walked towards the shelf and checked for himself, and nearly jumped in place in excitement as he started looking through the game.

"Geez. He's like a big boy... who am I kidding?" CC2 spoke to herself, finding the scene a bit hilarious.

In the end, she decided to call it a day without buying anything, and went to an arcade center nearby to play some games before heading back to her house in Leanbox.

A week later

Location: Gapain Field

"Hey IF, Compa, Falcom! You're all here?" CC2 greeted the group as she just arrived with a group of Leanbox Hunters.

"Good day, CC2!" Falcom returned the greet. "Just another day at the office."

CC2 then noticed IF looking at one direction after greeting her, so she asked: "What are you looking at, IF?"

"Oh, just waiting for a person to come back. He went ahead first to check if there's any dangers." The agent answered, not losing her focus.

"You got yourself a boyfriend, huh?" CC2 teased the girl, causing her to lose and turn to the 'catgirl' with a blushing face.

"HE'S NOT!" Unconsciously she shouted, after being teased about the matter during the time she grouped with the person in some 'extreme dangerous' quests.

"Relax, relax. I'm just joking." CC2 grinned, then she asked: "So, what's he like?"

"He... oh, he returned!" Compa was about to answer when she noticed the person they're waiting was returning to them, his right hand holding a lotus.

"So he... hey! You're Kuro, right?" He's no other than the guy in the gamestore a week ago.

"Hello, miss Cyberconnect2!" The man greeted with a ^.^. He then turned to the others and said: "No danger monsters. We can proceed."

"Alright." Falcom picked up her sword. "Everyone, let's go."

The others started to head into the dungeon... except the girls' group. IF immediately asked Kuro: "You already dealt with the dangerous quest, didn't you?"

~.~ "I'm that thin?"

"The fact you told us to stay here for quite a time said everything." Falcom shook her head. "At least we still have some work to do. CC2, would you like to join us?"

"Of course! Just like old times!"

...

"Okay... you soloed that one?" CC2 asked in disbelief, as she looked at the corpse of the Viral Dragon.

"I did. What?" ?.?

"Even the Goddesses were having troubles with normal Dragons!" Remembering her time with the Goddesses, she asked again: "How long have you been training for?"

"CC2..." She turned to IF. "By any chances, have you heard about that monster in Planeptune over a month ago?"

"I did... wait, that's him?" She looked up and down at the person, then understood: "You're covering your wounds up, huh? Makes sense now."

^.^ "Bingo."

"Hey everyone!" One of the Hunters, Terry, called the others to him. "Was that hole here before?"

People nearby started gathering and examining the location. IF looked at Kuro, who was =.= at the moment. "That's not your work?"

"I'm deadly, but I'm not devastating." -

"Uh... guys..." A hunter caught their attentions as he pointed his finger towards the sky. "Are those a swarm of something?"

Kuro looked up and used the visor... !-!: "Ready your weapons! Those are Viral Hornets!"

"You have got to be kidding!" IF immediately prepared her pistols. "That many?"

"No time to complain." Falcom channeled Fire Spells into her sword. "We have to deal with them before we could return!"

A few seconds later, the swarm of Hornets started attacking the Hunters and Guild Agents. However, while each hunter had to deal with one or two hornets, the rest seemed to focus mostly on Kuro, who's using his revolvers and Fire Bullets to quickly deal with the monsters. The fire also caught the forest around them, lightening the area with heat and light. Thankfully, Kuro's new ability was able to heal the forest back, so everyone didn't have to think twice of using fire in the forest.

After a half of hour dealing with the monsters, everything has calmed down for a bit. Kuro then noticed a few survived hornets flying down through the hole. "...I hope it's not what I think it is."

IF walked closer to the hole and looked down. "Don't jinx us... Should we just throw fire in that?"

"As much as I would want to vote yes..." Terry said. "Without Kuro's help, we could have burnt the entire place down. We don't want to damage the nation's environment, do we?"

"Well..." *.* "I could head down and check first..." X.X "Like usual..."

"No." Everyone immediately shut down the idea, as CC2 followed: "You barely held yourself in open space, how could you offer that idea of coming alone?"

"I'm more concerned of the amount of credits being poured into that mask." IF nonchalantly said, before continued: "Just a joke. But seriously, we don't want to risk facing another danger like Magic."

"It will be fine." , "At least I will try not to break the mask..." !.!

'Wait, is that mask portraying his thoughts, or its own?' Everyone looked at the mask's expression, and couldn't tell if what's right.

"How about we go with you?" CC2 suggested. "It's better than you going on your own and... not returning soon like what IF and Compa told me."

O.O "...The moment I saw anything danger, you're out of the place immediately."

"Jeez, we should say the same to you." IF said, then turned to Terry. "Can you guys cover up from here?"

"No big deal. Good luck down there."

* * *

Moments later

Location: Depth of Gapain Field

"Did you plan this up?" IF deadpanned. "That LED light is too convenient."

^.^ "Not really. I just felt like having one for party. Turned out we could use for this as well."

Kuro was leading the group, with his mask working as the flashlight. Combined with the lotuses floating around, the cave was filled with pleasant light of hope.

"Though, with that outfit, I know never think that you have this kind of ability." Touching one of the lotuses, CC2 said.

:) "I just developed it a few days ago. The lotus is a popular symbol in my country. It's really a good reminder..." His voice suddenly trailed off... then he asked: "How long have we been down here?"

IF checked her phone. "About fifteen minutes. Strange, I didn't see any trails of the hornets..." The sounds of wings flapping silenced everyone. Kuro immediately retracted most of the lotuses, leaving only one for each.

"They are nearby..." Compa whispered, and everyone prepared their weapons.

Slowly reaching a corner, Kuro turned off the LED light of the mask and turned on his own Night Vision and moved his head out... and grimaced. 'Our suspect was right...'

Everyone slowly followed him and looked inside... and saw a horror scene: corpses of creatures, including human, were placed there, as some sort of hornet queen was feasting on them...

"Don't look, Compa!" IF whispered while covering the girl's eyes, herself turning away from the scene.

"That... that's messed up." Falcom covered her mouth in shock.

X.X "Same sentiment. Let's return and then bring back some red barrels. We need to burn this down."

His left index finger suddenly jerked back a bit, making him turn back. CC2 asked in cautious: "What is it?"

+.+ "We're on our own. The hornets are coming from different directions." Pulling down his revolvers and equipping Fire Bullets, Kuro told IF: "But we can ask for some help. IF, can you call anyone from up top?"

"... Signals are super weak. I will try..."

=.= "Then we have to make do."

* * *

Same time

Location: Surface of Gapain Field

"That guy was from the rumors?" Terry asked one of the Military soldiers. "I thought he's going to be scarier..."

"Well that's the voice of the mask. His telepathy is not bad either, but his speaking voice... Goddess, it's way creepier than Dos..."

"I don't think I like to imagine that..." The phone of the soldier rang up. "From them?"

"Yeah, Planeptune's Guild Agent... hello?" The person picked up. "Hm... hm... Wait, I didn't... hey wait..." The call got cut off.

A Mage Huntress asked: "What did they find?"

"Not much. But it seemed there is a hornet nest right below us. But, I heard a word 'corpse' before an explosion..."

The ground suddenly shook, causing everyone to stand up and ready their weapons. Terry then asked: "What else did you hear?"

"I think they're planning to burn that nest. But, it seemed they didn't have much firepower to do so. And we couldn't track them down..."

"I could. Wait." Terry interrupted, as he put his hands on the ground, feeling the aftershock's movements... "Follow me."

...

Location: Underground. Hornet's Nest

"DEMONIC INFERNO!" Calling out the extreme fire of the hell, IF burned a group of hornets trying to swarm her from the front.

Behind her was Kuro and Compa trying to fire off the ones in her blind sight. The former also changed his position various times and attracted the hornets with his Dark energy. Also he's the main power to deal with the 'walking zombies', which were the creatures that got parasites from the Hornet Queen. Those parasites could be easily disintegrated, but the air they released during the fight and after the zombies fell was super toxic. Though, that's nothing when the lotuses did a fantastic job at protecting everyone, and they're nearly indestructible.

With Falcom and her sword, she tried to use brute force to smash the hornets, while creating as much shaking in the nest as possible, so the group on the surface could locate them. CC2 helped Kuro dealing with the zombies, and also protected Falcom from any backstabbings.

"How many of these things are here? Better question: How long does this nest exist?" IF screamed, trying to ask the others through the sounds of fighting.

X.X "Don't know." =.= "And don't care now. The ones from surface better find us now, or..."

The ceiling suddenly dropped some dirt on their heads, and the unknown shaking sound stopped the fight a bit. Everyone looked up... and Falcom shouted: "Take cover!"

"Stand still!" Kuro ordered, and black strings appeared and surrounded the girls, while himself grabbed a body and moved it over his head. A few seconds later, the ceiling collapsed, as the Hunters and soldiers started jumping down and killing the hornets, and then focusing on the Hornet Queen.

Kuro released the strings, and the girls started fighting alongside the others again. Kuro also had to call out more lotuses so that no accidents from the toxic air could happen. With the help of the Fire Users, the Hornet Queen was killed in no time.

After the Hornet Queen was dead, the parasites went down with it, and the zombies stopped moving. Everyone started cleaning up the mess, then got out of the nest and returned to the surface. Kuro's expression was -,- as he asked Terry: "Why did I feel we're missing something?"

"Why do you say so?" The hunter asked back in confusion.

"The Hornet Queen didn't even attack us, instead it used the other creatures and the hornets..."

IF answered: "Maybe it's because of that. It was used to that, so it lost its ways of own fighting."

O.O "...Could be. Could be not. Alright, let's return and..."

An unexpected attack from nowhere hit Kuro right in the face, knocking off his foot and making him fall on the ground. Everyone got on high alert again, as IF ran to him and checked on him. "Kuro! Are you alright?"

"Not...funny..." Kuro's real grunt startled everyone, and he sat up and put his mask off, revealing his terrifying face. "Shot... where?"

"North." Terry said. "You were facing that way, you know?"

"Could...another way..." Looking at the mask, he frowned. "Broke... fixable..."

"Okay, everyone." Falcom ordered. "Start raising your shield until we get back into the city. We couldn't risk anything in this."

* * *

Time skip

Location: Leanbox's Basilicom

"It's an energy shot, for sure..." Chika said. "But we don't know where it could be shot. At least, not in Leanbox."

"So you're saying there could be someone shooting from the sea, or from another nation?" IF raised her eyebrow in suspicion. "That's not ideal. Even if the shot didn't get affected by the other factors, hitting someone in the face like that is impossible."

"And yet it happened... and that raised another question: which one was that shot aiming at?" Falcom asked. "There's a group of people there, and it could reach towards anyone."

"And it required advanced technology to make the shot possible, let alone accurate." IF added. "Only Planeptune and Lastation could do so. And no way someone in the former planned to do so on us."

"We could leave the matter to the future. For now, you girls earn some rest... and tell Kuro to fix that fast, because we wasted a lot of materials in it."

"He is doing that, for sure."


	8. Chapter 8

Time: Three years ago

Location: Leanbox

"This is it..." Vert let her spear drop to the ground, earning a sickening defeat clang echoing in the air, as she dropped on her knees, fatigued after the fights with the Purple Goddesses. "I lost. I will grant it on my will..."

"We can try other way! I don't want to lose you too!" Nepgear screamed, not believing the damage she has caused during the fight: due to the power of the Gehaburn gained from the other CPUs, the wounds on Green Heart's body were irreparable. "Please, just listen! All we need is your Share, and that's it! Just, please..."

"But you can't take it directly from the room, can you?" Vert smiled weakly, as the wounds were spilling more and more blood. "That blade... it wants me, and I can feel it. For Gamindustri's sake, I would do anything to protect the people, especially Leanbox, my nation and my people. It's time for me to fulfill my duty..."

"Vert, shut up!" Neptune shouts at the dying woman. "Save your strength! Compa, please patch her up!"

"I'm trying!" The nurse had already working on the job, however, the Gehaburn has done the damage. "It's no use! The wounds wouldn't close up!"

Suddenly Vert grabbed the tip of Gehaburn, which was in Nepgear's hand, and directed it towards right where her heart was. "Finish the work, Nepgear. I can't die just because of this fight. I have to die to protect my people..."

"Stop it!" Nepgear tried to pull the tip out weakly, but Vert's death grip wasn't allowing her to do so. "No more!"

Ignoring the girl's plead, Vert turns her hazy eyes towards the CPU of Planeptune, who had her head hanging down. Eyes met eyes, and Neptune got the message. Neptune pats Nepgear with her left hand, while her right hand slowly reached to the handle of Gehaburn. Nepgear shook her head, not wanting to let it go, but upon seeing her sister's teary eyes, she knew that her sister was also suffering as well, but she had the guts to do so. Releasing the handle, Nepgear fell on her knees, her hands covered her face as she's crying loudly, her tears dampening the floor below her.

Neptune gritted her teeth, as she started aiming at the target. Though, before she did the work, she leaned on Vert's ear and whispered so Nepgear couldn't hear her: "I will join you later..."

Vert's smile faltered a bit, but she responded: "We will wait."

*STAB!*

* * *

Time: Present. 3:00 AM

Location: Workshop. Garage

A huge slam sound, followed by something breaking, woke everyone in the workshop up, as they started drawing the weapons out and scanned the room for anything dangerous. It's mandatory now that everyone had to have a weapon with them all the time, in case if any emergency calls were made. Then, a few seconds passed, they focused on the source of the noise, to see Kuro having his hoodie up, his hands holding the fixed mask in front of him, and the metal table he used to fix the mask being smashed into pieces in front of him. The man himself was breathing heavily, just recently experiencing the death of the Goddess of Leanbox.

MAGES. asked the man in worry: "You okay?"

"...No..." That was his honest answer.

One of the scientists looked at the clock to see what time it was, then said: "Dude, that's a very unpleasant way to wake us up, and at this hour..."

"...Apology..." He then started using the strings to fix the table up in no time. He placed the mask on the newly fixed table, then slammed his head on it, not being able to return to his sleep after that scene...

"Again, Kuro?" Having heard from the other girls, the mad scientist knew about the conditions the dead man was having. The girl started pulling a chair and sat next to him, while the others dropped into their chairs or tables and continued sleeping. MAGES. spoke again in a quiet tone: "It's Green Heart this time, right? You had one in Planeptune about its Goddess, and here..." She earned a nod. She continued: "Try to keep yourself together. It's not healthy if you keep reacting like that..."

'Wouldn't you thrash around if you got a nightmare?' Kuro replied back through telepathy.

"Yours was almost an attack. I'm sure you could break someone with that Dark power of yours." Receiving no responses, MAGES. changed the subject: "I believe you still hold the ticket to Lyrica's performance, am I right?" Seeing the one raising up from Kuro's damaged hand, she said: "After a few quests, take a rest and head there on time. You should better keep your mental in place."

'Said the one who's called the Mad Scientist.' This time, Kuro chuckled, earning a small giggle from MAGES.. 'Well, you should take more rest.'

"Maybe, maybe not. I have much to do with." That's MAGES.'s reply before she returned to her desk.

* * *

A day later

Location: Leabox's Military Base. Training Compound

"Need training? You?" The member of RRoD, Cave, looked at Kuro, who had the mask on, in curiosity. "You managed to hold yourself against Magic, that's something worth to mention."

"That's survival instinct. It's nothing impressive at all." The mask responded. "All the times, I was trying to dodge her, since my physical attacks couldn't do anything against her at all. And I was too weak to aim at the soul directly."

"Even after gaining..."

"I wouldn't like being too dependent on them. I need to walk on my own."

"... So be it. We could start right now." Upon hearing the end note of her words, everyone who's training stopped immediately, as Kuro and Cave walked to the middle of the compound, and started facing each other with their respective scissors in their hands. "Anytime you're ready." Then she saw Kuro pulling out his mask and put it in his bag. "Why?" He tapped his temple, signalling that he's going to use telepathy. She nodded.

'I need to know what's also wrong with how I observe the battlefield. And... maybe you could point that out as well. Also, since I'm already dead, you could go as far as you can'

"... Are you sure?" Cave replied, uncertainly. She didn't want to hurt him, but that's his desire...

Kuro nodded, though he moved the scissors in front of his chest for a defense stance. And immediately Cave could see the problem: his movements were too stiff, and he's not in any conditions to pull out any attacks that would consider dangerous. Then, to everyone's confusion, Kuro ran towards Cave with sloppy steps and tried to stab Cave, who saw that miles away. Sighing, she stepped to his left to dodge the stab, and struck down her weapon... only to her surprise that Kuro has already moved his right hand right around his back and blocked the attack with the scissors holding in reversal. Then he used his left elbow to push her off, then tried to strike her again, but, Cave recovered quickly due to how weak the push was. She dodged and punched him with her left hand, which surprisingly worked as he stumbled back.

"... So that's why. You can only focus on the most threatening danger. And your attacks are, pardon my words, pathetic." Cave commented, feeling really bad about the person before her. "But, your counter-attacks are on point. Still, you are going to need more than just that to... survive..." She didn't really know how to say, since she never dealt with this kind of guy before.

"But, we saw him attacking before. He destroyed the monsters quite easily..." One of the soldiers said, remembering the rescue in Planeptune.

'That's when I used the power. Currently, I'm not using any of them...' Shaking his head out of the dizziness, Kuro replied. 'Like I said, I didn't want to use the power too much.'

"Still, your reactions are not too bad. Probably due to what you have experienced." Cave concluded. "I will help you as much as possible. Come at me."

'Got it.' Preparing the scissors again, Kuro went for another sloppy stab...

...

"I think that's enough." Cave said, after an hour working out. She didn't even look tired at all.

'...Maybe... I'm exhausted...' Holding his head with his left hand, Kuro was a bit dizzy after the training. All he did was running around while trying to land a hit on Cave... The result: utter failure. The scissors were put away in his pocket.

Surrounding them, the soldiers only dared to silently laugh at the guy's failed attempts. Though, they did understand Kuro's motivations, seeing him completely wrecked by his own efforts, comparing to what he has done for the nation, it's like Hell to Heaven.

"I admire your motivation, but you have a long way to go." Cave walked close to Kuro and smiled to ease him. "I think you should take a rest now."

'Yeah, it would be the best.' Pulling out the mask, he put it back on his face. "..." The static meant that he's planning to say something, but he held back.

"What's wrong?" The soldier asked curiously.

"...*Chuckle* I'm just thinking of something sweet to eat. And pudding somehow is in the top of the list."

That rare childish laugh caused her to blink once, before following with her own giggle. "I guess it's good enough."

* * *

Time skip

'...How... did this happen?'

Eh... whose idea was that again?

'Compa's. And both of us were against that...'

Yet you two still followed?

'PUPPIES EYES! We couldn't fight it!'

Basically, Compa asked IF and Kuro to watch a HORROR film, for some reasons, despite the fact that one of the 'victims' was clearly horrified enough to look at. And to put the matter worse, they watched it at night, WITH IF and Compa sitting on his sides while holding his arms in 'fear'. Then, for some REASONS, they fell asleep. Yep, falling asleep during the horror film... and their heads were laying on his shoulders.

'...They smell nice... KEEP YOURSELF TOGETHER!'

Yeah no. I'm sure as hell everyone would kill themselves just to be in your situation.

'First, don't suggest that. Two... I feel like I'm going to be killed in the morning...'

"Compa... Ah, not there..." Now that caught Kuro's attention, as he turned to see IF drooling while mumbling Compa's name.

"IF, you smell nice." Oh not you as well, Compa.

'...Wait... don't tell me... these two are... OH WHY THE HELL AM I SITTING RIGHT BETWEEN THEM?' Immediately calling out the strings, he carried both of them to his bed (Yes, they're using his guest room to watch the horror film) and laid them nicely next to each other, and they started hugging under the blanket. '...Aw...'

Well you don't have anywhere to sleep now.

'Don't ruin it.' Picking up the leftovers, Kuro threw them all to the garbage bag and then left the room to throw it after turning off the TV and cleaning a bit. Once he's done, he returned back to the room, laid down on the sofa and started sleeping... before waking up again and silently pulled out IF's Mate Rose Pink and took the picture of the two, then set it as the main screen. Satisfied, he returned the phone to its place and fully fell into a nice sleep.

...

The next day

"Why?" IF stabbed the tree behind Kuro, the qatar was a millimeter above from touching his hair.

"...Cute." That's Kuro's response.

That caused IF to blush even deeper and her glare intensified, causing the man to cower even lower. "I...DID...NOT...SEE HER THAT WAY!"

"...Could be..." The moment the words were out, Kuro had to roll out to dodge IF's slash, which cut the tree in half. 'I dug my own grave, didn't I?'

Well, with the picture like that, what did you expect?

After IF found out the picture, as Compa opened her phone 'by accident' and started reminisced of the time they were small. She checked the time it took, and it only took her a few seconds to find out who could make that one. Once they're done with breakfast, IF immediately pulled him towards the Guild, accepted a hella long list of requests, and dragged him to the dungeon.

And now, monsters were hiding themselves in case the girl's wrath could accidentally hit them.

So uh, regrets?

'Nope. None of that. Skip to Lyrica's concert please. I don't like running forever.'

"COME BACK HERE AND LET ME KILL YOU AGAIN!"

* * *

Another time skip

"Enjoying yourself?" MAGES. asked the man, her voice managing to be heard over the noise of fans cheering on Lyrica's performance. ^.^ was her only response as Kuro turned his face to her. "Anyway, want to meet her later? I have a special seat at the back of the stage."

"You're her cousin. You always has that." That earned him a small chuckle from the Mad Scientist. He then pulled out a marker and Lyrica's poster and said: "Can't say no to an autograph."

...

"CAN I HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH?" Both the idol and the mask said at the same time, as they showed the poster and the marker to each other. Though, that union shout caused Cave and MAGES. to giggle.

After a few seconds, Kuro asked: "Um...since when did I have a poster? I'm not that popular, right?"

"You're kidding? You saved Planeptune and Leanbox from extinction!" 5pb. exclaimed in shock, not knowing that Kuro didn't really care about how people saw him. "You are like the CPUs back then! People even rumored that you're one in disguised!"

~.~ "I'm... not that good, you know?"

"Admit it, you're not normal. Instead of asking someone else to help you training for the first time, you picked me." Cave responded. "Your status being dead, killing the monster that even Last Call couldn't scratch its skin, earning respect from the Mascot..."

X.X "I get it. It just... feels weird, knowing that I'm popular. I tried not to stand out so much before..."

"You pretty much stood out the moment you were in this world." MAGES. remarked.

=.= "I guess... so it's a trade then?"

"Of course!"

* * *

Last day in Leanbox

Location: The Oracle's office. Leanbox's Basilicom

"So you met the Mascot." Chika said after Kuro reported after finishing the last set of requests. "How is she?"

"Seen better days. I can't understand why they have to hide in such hideous places."

"That's their choice. Anyway..." Pulling out a small book, the Oracle gave it to the dead man. "This should be enough for you to go around freely. The other Oracles have also given their permission for this one to work."

Receiving the book and putting it into his bag, Kuro nodded. "Thank you. See you later."

The moment his hand touched the doorknob, Chika suddenly stopped him with: "By the way, nice job getting the girls with you."

He had the idea what she's saying, but he decided to play dumb: "What are you talking about?"

"I gave her the film." ... "She was asking me to find a way to be more 'friendly friend with you', as her quote. And you already knew how my Big Sis was like..."

"... Guess I have to thank you then. But please give me a warning, I almost had a heart-attack when they mumbled the other's name while they're sleeping."

"... Wait, so they..." Kuro then saw a very small change on how the Oracle smiled. And her eyes as well. "Well, good luck."

Now that confused him. "Good luck for what?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." She hid her smile with her hands, though her eyes clearly showed that she's planning something.

"...Goodbye then." Not wanting to know, Kuro exited the room quickly.

A moment later, Chika's laugh got louder. And she said: "He's gonna have his hands full with the girls."


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey, you have been smiling since we reached Lowee. You see something funny?" IF asked the person sitting opposite to her, who's looking out of the window of the ship while having a somewhat normal smile on his right face.

"... Snow..." Placing the bone hand on the glass window, Kuro felt the cold air transmitting through the barrier that kept the wind from entering the airtrain. "Never seen... directly."

"You don't have snow in your place?" Falcom asked curiously. "Not even one bit?"

"... Some places... very high... mountains..." Picking the hot chocolate he bought from the food service, he took a small sip between the speech. "My place... not cold enough."

"Then, you don't have winter?"

"Winter... with no snow." Kuro replied towards Compa's question.

Looking at the scene outside, IF said: "That sounds boring. Hey, do you have any festivals in winter?"

"...Not many... Christmas... not originally ours..."

"Wait, you have Christmas?" IF's question earned her a confused nod. "We do have it here."

"... Coincidence..."

Falcom shrugged. "Maybe. Guess our worlds are similar than we thought."

Putting the mask on the table, Kuro let it speak his thought: "Kinda strange that you know Christmas, despite that you only have the CPUs as Deities here... if not counting the Deity of Sin."

"We have a story about a big man in a red suit that flies around Gamindustri and gives presents to good children at the night of the Christmas." Compa said. "So he's also a god?"

"...I'm not actually sure about it. It's sort of a fairy tale in our place." Kuro answered, not very certain about the original of the story.

The conversation dropped for a moment as everyone watched the airtrain starting to enter the station and slowing down, then it fully stopped so everyone could exit and stand on the ground of Lowee.

"Welcome to Lowee, by the way." IF then said to Kuro, who had his mask on. She earns a ^.^ from him.

The group then reached the security check... and needless to say, it didn't go smooth at all.

"Mask off, please." The woman behind the deck asked Kuro politely.

"...Wasn't the document good enough?" It's not that Kuro was disobeying the laws. He just didn't want to scare everyone off.

"Sorry, but it's the protocol. We need to know who is entering Lowee."

=.= "...*Sigh* This is not going to end well." Pulling down the hood, Kuro could hear some whispers of fear from the other rows of people waiting to get through the checkpoint. And when he took off the mask...

IF and Falcom facepalmed as the security guards raised their weapons and pointed them directly at the companion, while Compa could only smile nervously and sympathetically at Kuro's misfortunate. They then saw Kuro slowly raising his hands up in surrender, as the guards slowly walked to him. IF decided to intervene as she raised up her Guild Badge. "I'm the Agent of Planeptune Guild. He's with my group, so don't worry."

"...Well, I was planning to let him pass..." The woman smiled nervously. "Since his appearance matched this..." She then turned to the guards. "It's okay guys. He's not here to cause harms." The others gave her a 'are you sure?' look on their faces, and she replied with a nod. Reluctantly, they dropped their weapons and returned to their previous spots. The woman then gave Kuro back the documents and said: "Welcome to Lowee, mister Kuro. Enjoy your days in the Land of White Serenity."

Putting back the mask on his face and pulling the hood up, Kuro then received the documents and nodded. "Thanks." The mask said his thanks to the woman.

"You're welcome."

* * *

"Never a good day with people screaming at you, huh?" IF joked at Kuro's misfortune.

"You don't say." Kuro scratched his head through the hood. "Jeez, if Lowee is like that, then it's dreadful to think what would happen when we reach Lastation."

"More chaotic, I would say. Kei takes her job very seriously." The agent replied. "We should head to the Basilicom to meet Mina immediately."

"How about you three go first? I have been called by my friends here." Falcom said as she pointed to a direction that's not to the Basilicom.

"You can go, we can't keep you around forever anyway." IF nodded.

Taking the confirmation, Falcom saluted once and walked away, leaving the trio on their own. Kuro then noticed something staring at their group, as he turned around to find if anyone's nearby... only to find a traffic camera looking at them. He decided to dismiss it and followed the girls to the Basilicom.

* * *

A small walk later, and they reached the front door of the building they needed to get in. After IF did the register with the security of the place, the trio walked further into the building.

During the way, Kuro noticed the atmosphere around being a little too quiet and eerie, like when he was still stuck in that school. While there were still sounds of footsteps of the workers and their own, it only added the creepiness to the feeling.

IF noticed repeated movements behind her, and she turned back to see Kuro turning his head towards nearly everywhere inside the Basilicom. "We can admire the building later, Kuro. Right now..."

"It's not that." He interrupted. "I feel like there's something wrong of the building."

"Something... wrong?" Compa asked confusingly. "What do you mean?"

"...Not even sure myself." Kuro can't express the feeling. "It's like... this place has lost something in it..."

"...I guess you could say so." IF understood why. "After the CPUs were gone... if compared to other places in Lowee, the Basilicom is now the quietest place."

"..." Kuro didn't comment after hearing, and he stopped moving his head around and focused on the direction they walked.

"Well, here we are." IF announced as they reached the library's door, given the sign next to the door written 'LIBRARY'.

"Why here?" Kuro asked curiously.

"They said that she's in here." IF said, referring to what the workers here told her about the Oracle. "She's looking for something, but nobody really knows what it is."

Pushing the door open, IF stepped in first, followed by the other two. In here, they saw the empty tables, with books and notes scattering around. Picking one of them up, Compa read the content. "... Fairy tales? What is miss Mina doing?"

Walking to another table, Kuro saw the books being written in somewhat ancient language, given that most of the letters resembled Egypt hieroglyphs. Picking a book up, he opened it and started scanning to see if he could understand it, and he ended up with nothing.

"Strange, there's no signs of Mina." IF looked at the ways between the shelves, but she couldn't find the person they're looking for. "Did she go out to her office?"

"No, she's in here." Closing his book with one hand, Kuro denied the possibility. "I can feel another soul in this place, but I couldn't pinpoint it."

"Can you at least roughly point at where she is?" Compa asked.

Kuro concentrated... and pointed at his feet. IF crossed her arms and asked: "Really? Then she must be out..."

Shaking his head, Kuro started walking around while trying to feel anything suspicious in the room. Then...

*Cling*

One of the floor stones let out a different sound than the others when Kuro stepped on it, and it's located in the far corner of the library. Kneeling down, he knocked on it to feel it being a metal plate of sort, the color being identical to the other stones. Looking closer, he saw a tiny cracker on the rear of the plate, so he brought out his scissors and flipped the plate up, revealing a secret pathway to the underground.

"Wow, look at that." IF said, as she and Compa looked down. "Who have ever guessed that Blanc had this secret base?"

"But, it does have some senses." Compa replied. "Lowee has a lot of tunnels, right? Maybe the nation actually has a whole city underground? But they want to keep it as a secret?"

"Nevertheless..." Putting the metal plate aside, Kuro opened the LED light on his mask and shone down the area. "There's a single soul down there, and we need to know who the person is."

IF nodded, and prepared her qatar. "You take point, Kuro."

...

"A hidden lab..." IF looked around the construct of the small hallway the group's walking in. "Now this is suspicious. Blanc should NOT be capable of thinking this far."

"Since she's a CPU, she might have this idea." Kuro turned off his LED light after seeing the lights in the lab provided enough. "But, given by your tone... maybe I'm wrong."

"That's a bit mean to Blanc, you two." Compa sued.

"We both know how she was, Compa." IF then heard footsteps from a section ahead of them. "Guess we found the person we're looking for. Let's go."

Hearing footsteps behind her, the Oracle turned back to see a sudden trio walking towards her. And obviously she was surprised. "Oh my. How did you find out the way in here? I thought I told the workers to tell you to wait in the library?"

"Well, the entrance is in there, you know." IF crossed her arms upon seeing Mina's dumbfounded expression. "Don't tell me you didn't even know there's one there."

"I'm aware that there's one, but I already had it covered..."

"Using a metal plate as a door is not ideal if you want to keep something in secret." Looking over IF's back, Mina saw the only male in the group. Kuro then extended his right arm towards the Oracle. "I'm Kuro, nice to meet you."

A second later, Mina finally caught up and shook his hand. "The same to you, mister Kuro. I'm Mina, the Oracle of Lowee." She then changed the subject a bit: "How about we head up and then have a conversation in my office?"

* * *

"So..." After everyone was comfortable in their seats, IF resumed the conversation. "When did you have that advanced lab? Last time we checked, you guys are not fond too much of them because of the Killachines."

"And we still are." Mina admitted. "However, this one existed long before Blanc was the CPU. We just happened to find it after some searchings in LAN Castle, and it had connections directly to the Basilicom and some other places." She then briefly looked at Kuro. "Although, it seemed that our covers are not that good..."

"It's just because I felt you down there, that I was suspicious. I doubt normal human would be able to do so like me."

"Quite." Looking over the trio, Mina sighed. "So it's like the last time, another group traveling through Gamindustri and trying to gain more power to fight the darkness..."

"Pretty much it. Except now we have no CPUs on our sides." Leaning back on her chair, IF looked at the ceiling then let out an irritated sigh. "Same old enemies we suspected, if the fight between us and the ghost of Magic proved enough."

"Because of it, from what I have heard, Kei has raised the defensive response level to another level." Mina revealed.

"Great." IF groaned. "We will have to do something with that, and we don't want another gun-pointing at us when we reach there."

Mina blinked once. "Oh? Something happened when you landed?"

Compa giggled. "Just Kuro being himself."

*.* "Compa, you don't have to put it like that." That made the girls giggle, considering the voice being a little stuttered and sounding like a whine.

"That aside..." Recovering first, Mina addressed. "If what Histoire told us before was true, then there must be some sorts of S-Class monster outside of the city. However, during the time you were in Leanbox, we haven't encountered one."

"... Maybe there's a different meaning." Kuro gained everyone's attention. "Now that we know Deity of Sin might be back... then why had Alpha Team found only four cocoons? If I was the one, I would mass-product those monsters, since no-one could beat them up."

"... You're telling me that Deity of Sin is planning something else?" IF sat straight up.

"Or it could be someone else who's still following her ideals... speaking of which..." Kuro turned his attention to Mina. "Would you happen to have some overpowered weapons?"

"We... don't. Why?"

Compa answered: "Kuro was attacked after we managed to destroy an infested honest nest..."

"Dogoo!" Everyone startled a bit as the pink Dogoo popped out of Kuro's backpack and landed on his head. Then, it just bounced a few times before settling there.

"That... pardon my rudeness, but why are you still keeping her around?" Mina politely asked.

Kuro brought the Dogoo out of his head before patting the blob over the head. "Well, I feel it being one of the pacifist monsters..."

"Not to us girls." IF narrowed her eyes dangerously. "You have no ideas how troublesome those ones are to us."

(*O.O*) "I... happen to like seeing that..."

"Of course you do." IF rolled her eyes, while the others blushed in embarrassment.

Kuro coughed one to hide his own. "Anyway, back to the matter. The attack came from the North direction, but the attack didn't start from Leanbox. Since it's too vague, we decided not to go public about the attack. However, we did keep it in mind and tried to find out who's the real target, because the shot could be for anyone in the group."

"I see." Mina understood. "Be assured that, other than the oppose against Nepgear's methods before, we do not hold grudge against anyone."

"Planeptune already wasted too much for Last Call, so nobody could make that shot from there. And the Hunters are Leanbox's citizens, so it couldn't be their own people either. The last one left is Lastation, then." IF summarized.

"...We shouldn't leave out the Graveyard, either." Kuro theorized. "Like when your General was suspicious of me, there might be some outcasts somewhere around. In fact, when we were still in Planeptune, two of ASIC members tried to raid my room."

"Wait what? Were you hurt?" Compa immediately turned worried.

"Don't worry. Just a girl and a mouse. I scared them off easily."

"Linda and Warechu, huh?" IF said. "Can't they just take the warning and do a genuine job already?"

"Nevertheless..." Mina changed the subject one more. "You are going to stay here for a month, right? Let me find you some places to stay for the time."

"Appreciate it." Kuro nodded.

* * *

'That again...' Once is an accident, twice is coincidence, third time is a pattern.

The moment they exited the Basilicom, he felt another gaze towards him, but he only saw the cameras around. And now, when he was in the balcony of the hotel room they had with the help of Mina, he felt it again. Putting down the mask, he used his own vision to find out where the gaze could come from. However, after a solid three minutes, he couldn't find anyone being suspicious.

'Couldn't be The Creator either. If it's him, then I would have felt it differently.' Pulling the phone IF gave him, Kuro looked at the screen. 'Guess I could do another patrol before going to bed.'

Checking to be sure that the front door was locked, Kuro then patted the Dogoo while signaling it to stay put. The blob bounced once before settling down and placing itself under the bed blanket. Chuckling, Kuro walked to the balcony again and used his power to call out the strings so he could slide down without creating a crater by jumping straight down.

...

After touching the ground, Kuro took a little search around the area his group was currently staying in. Now he's certain the cameras weren't the causes, since he's standing right under one. The mask was still on his face, so he wouldn't scare some unfortunate souls that could be easily scared at.

Then, in a small tick of second, he heard something snap. He immediately turned to the direction to see a silhouette from afar. The moment he did that, the person startled and ran away, alarming him. He gave chase to the person, but the person was surprisingly agile, and for a few moments, he could swear that he saw the person using electricity to speed up.

Eventually, he decided to end the chase by fading into a building's shadow, transferring himself into the person's shadow, raising his right hand from the ground and grabbing the person's leg, causing the person to fall on the ground and yelp in surprise. Using his left hand to push himself off the shadow, Kuro then looked at the person... to see blond hair and two Pikachu-tail ribbons. Not taking the risk, he pulled out his scissors, flipped the person up so she (he heard her voice when she felt) could face him, and pointed his weapon towards her face. She startled again and tried to defuse the situation: "Wait wait wait! I'm not causing you harm! I was just taking some pictures, that's all!"

Despite knowing who she was, Kuro couldn't let that fact be known. "That's privacy intrusion since we weren't told about it. Give me a reason, or I will send you to the nearby station."

"Hey hey hey! I'm a reporter, okay? I have permission to take shots!" Deciding to use that line for his own good, Kuro let the scissors be away just a little bit from the girl's face, as she pulled out her business card. "Dengekiko, News and Game Reporter."

Taking the card with his free hand, Kuro looked back-and-front at the card to confirm it being real. Though that's just an act for conviction. He then returned the card and pocketed his scissors, allowing the girl to stand up. After she's done dusting her skirt, Kuro warned: "Next time, just come directly to us instead of sneaking around like that. We were just having bad times in Leanbox, and you just had to trigger me like that. Thankfully the girls didn't notice that much."

"Sorry." Scratching her head, Dengekiko apologized. "But still, rumors fly pretty fast you know. I want to find out as many infos about the new addition of Gamindustri's heroes as possible, before the other one gets to you first."

Crossing his arms, the mask made a =.= look: "Heroes? Pretty sure you got the wrong guy."

"I didn't. That outfit and that mask of yours are unmistakable." She then raised her camera and took a shot at his face, much to his surprise, then ran away while saying: "Thanks for the pictures!"

Due to the sudden flash, Kuro raised his arm up to cover his eyes, and when he lowered it down, Dengekiko was already far away. A few seconds later, he let out an exhausted sigh, before walking back to his hotel and calling it a day.


	10. Chapter 10

"Dengekiko followed us the moment we set our feet on Lowee?" IF asked Kuro after taking a bite out of her sandwich. "No wonder you looked overcautious yesterday. I thought you were just paranoid for no reasons."

Kuro nodded, while his mask responded: "At least I made her promise to just go ask us directly if she has questions, instead of just sneaking around."

"Given what her job is, I'm sure she wouldn't just do that. Sneaking around fits her more." IF stiffened a laugh when she saw Kuro's right eye narrowing in disdain. "Anyway, are you going to do quests in the Guild, as usual?"

"...Maybe not." Taking a small sip from his water glass, he continued: "Pardon my selfishness this time, but I just want to have a walk around Lowee for the day. A day off, I could call it like that."

"Oh, do you need some guidances? I could ask..."

"Thank you, Compa, but I can handle on my own." Kuro politely declined.

"Hm... Well, suit yourself, then." IF nodded. "You have been here long enough to know how our world works."

"Thank you for your understanding."

...

"One...two...one...two..." Walking on the street of the Land of White Serenity, Kuro watched its citizens doing their own things, quietly counting every step he took. No one bothered him, and he minded his own business. This was one small quiet moment he has wanted to have after what he has been through. Even when he was seemingly 'alone' in one dimension in that school, it didn't mean that he was able to rest. No, that silence only indicated that something bad could happen at any second...

He has been walking nonstop for an hour, the feeling of fatigue never reached his mind. However, his body, even when it's counted as 'dead', could still feel, and he knew that it needed for a quick rest. Passing through a children's playground, he spotted an empty swing, so he rested on it, occasionally pushing the swing so it would move back-and-forth. For a minute, he just enjoyed the little sensation that the swing gave to him... "Tappy, tappy-ta, tappy-ta-ta..." Letting his inner child be free, he started singing in a low tone, not following exactly any rhymes, and yet it lightened his heart up in the cold wind of Lowee...

"Dogoo, dogoo-go..." Poking out of his bag, the pink Dogoo, named Pinkie, started mimicking what he's doing. Seeing that made him smile under the mask, as he pulled her out and put the blob on his lap, as the two kept repeating the singing with no direct purposes...

"What are you doing here, nyu?" Hearing the question out of nowhere, Kuro stopped singing and turned his head to the left... "You should return to your home, nyu. A hailstorm is coming soon, nyu."

He nodded, confirming that he heard it loud and clear. "Thank you for the advice, little miss."

The girl blinked once, noticing the strange voice that didn't sound like natural human voice. "Hm? Why is your voice strange?"

"...Ah, sorry. That's the mask's voice. It helped me talking with people without scaring them." Putting Pinkie back into the bag, Kuro offered the girl a handshake while introducing himself: "My name is Kuro, nice to meet you..."

"It's Broccoli, nyu." The girl returned the offer. "Kuro... weren't you the one that stopped the big monster in Planeptune months ago, nyu?"

"Yep." Kuro replied.

"I see. So you're here to deal with the monsters in Lowee, nyu?" She received a nod. "IF and Compa were with you, nyu?"

"Well... you might find them around the Basilicom. I asked them to have a day off today."

"Thank you. Bye-bye, mister." Broccoli waved her goodbye, and Gema started bringing her away...

'...How does that thing move?'

Like the ghosts?

'...Not exactly the answer I want, but okay.'

...

'This should be enough.' Thanking the shopkeeper after buying what he needed, Kuro walked out of the shop and unwrapped one of the pieces of cakes, then gave it to Pinkie who happily ate the dessert. 'Now... let's... are you serious?' The feeling of being stalked returned, as he turned his head towards to where he assumed being watched from... and 'sensed' the person around the corner. However, this person was different from Dengekiko, and it's someone he hasn't met before... '*Sigh* Just another day, huh?' Deciding to not mind it too much, he headed to where he might find some clues about the beasts...

* * *

Location: LAN Castle, Underground.

'If the Conquest Ending is what happened in the past... the party must have not found out about Uranus.' Kuro thought, as he walked deeper into the dungeon. Along the way, small monsters tried to turn him into a quick snack, but they're ended up being his String Formation's preys, a defensive spell that emits Darkness Strings around him, protecting from harmful strikes.

Using VOTP, he managed to get through most traps here, and found some interesting items along the way. After a while, he also found out the entrance to the Secret Hall...

Pulling his revolver out, Kuro shot once towards a pillar, purposely miss the target behind it, earning a yelp of surprise. "I know you're following me the whole time. Show yourself."

After a few seconds, the person showed up while scratching her head apologetically. "Sorry, sorry. I was curious about how you would act. Dengekiko told me a bit about you, but I didn't expect you to be that cautious."

=.= "...*Sigh*" Kuro pulled back his revolver and pocketed it. "I won't stop you, but don't go around and sneak up on me. It's bad for my heart."

"Got it."

Kuro turned back to where he's planning to head after hearing Famitsu's confirmation. Knocking on the walls, he tried to find anything unusual hidden in them...

"Hey, what are you doing here, really?"

"...Something." That's Kuro's response.

"Eh? That's a vague answer." Kuro could clearly hear her sigh of disappointment. "This place isn't well-known for farming stuffs, you know."

"...That's not what I'm aiming either." Noticing a strange clang, Kuro put his hand on the surface, to feel that part of wall being different from the rest. "Metal plates..."

"...You know, you SHOULDN'T attempt to find a flag. Usually you would meet a death one." Famitsu seemed to find out what he's doing in this place.

"For a dead man, it's nothing." Kuro joked, before kicking the metal plates, causing it to fall back while revealing itself to be a worn-out door. "Though, I suggest you return back to the main city..."

"Hey, if I didn't go in dangerous places, how can I get some good news to compete against Dengekiko?" The reporter grinned.

"...Suit yourself." Kuro didn't really want her to get hurt, but reporters tended to be very tenacious...

"You won't get any girls if you keep talking like that." That one comment from the girl caused Kuro to nearly stumble on his feet.

"...My apology for treating you badly." Composing himself back, Kuro replied. "We're not exactly in a place where we could joke around."

He heard her snickering behind him. "Ah, it's okay. After what happened to you, I can understand your actions."

...

"Aw, there's nothing down here." Famitsu complained.

The duo has reached to the last room in the castle. However, other than a small coffin with a shrine behind it, there's nothing interesting.

"Oh well, I should just take a few pictures for myself then..." The girl started pulling out her camera and taking shots everywhere...

Kuro himself walked towards the coffin and looked for any hints on how to open it. Though, while he expected it to be some sorts of hidden methods to open it, all he just needed to do was to push its top.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't do reckless things like that!" Famitsu immediately rushed to him when she heard the sound of the top falling to the ground. "It could anger whoever's still around here! Maybe you could wake something up in the process!"

"That's what I'm aiming for." Kuro answered, then quickly pulled the girl back, just in time for some transparent figure to appear over the coffin. "Sorry for disturbing your sleep, but I need some answers that you might be able to provide."

"...Hm. An unusual sight to see." The figure watched as the reporter yelping in surprise while hiding behind the masked man. "I assume that you're adventurers, yes? It's very impolite to disturb someone else's sleep, especially someone who has passed away."

"Like I said before, my apology." Kuro bows respectfully. "Right now, I believe Gamindustri is facing a danger, namely Deity of Sins. Since I'm not very familiar with the figure, I hope that the CPUs from the past could shed some light for this blind man before you."

Famitsu was speechless at how Kuro smoothly replied back. Then, she noticed one thing: "Wait, she's a CPU?"

"I was. Now, I'm just a remnant of the past. The name's Uranus." The CPU answered the girl's question. "Now, young man, you have piqued my interest. I thought that the CPUs have defeated the being with Gehaburn, with the costs of their lives. What made you think that this danger is caused by the creature?"

"...Because, there's a loophole in their plans... and yours." Kuro answered, surprising Famitsu.

"Wait! You mean their plans didn't work?" Famitsu shouts in surprise. "But Deity of Sins vanished, right? Nepgear confirmed it!"

"Deity of Sins has no solid forms." Uranus responded. "Even in the past, we couldn't harm it unless we used Gehaburn to weaken it and seal it away." She turned her attention back to Kuro. "Now, what's the 'loophole' you are talking about?"

"Gehaburn IS the loophole." Kuro declared. "To activate it, you must supply the sword with an enormous amount of power, something that no mere human could provide. Only the CPU's power could be sufficient... however, if it's that simple. If you used it normally, meaning that you have to sacrifice their lives... not only you lost a great deal of power, but that would ALSO give DoS power, considering that killing IS a sin of sort. THAT is why you could NEVER eliminate it in true meaning."

"...That...We haven't thought about it..." That explanation made Uranus question their methods of fighting against DoS. "Deity of Sins is an amalgamation of negative emotions and desires... our plan was to use the opposite emotions that were stronger that its..."

"The problem is: WHERE did it get the power from?" Kuro added in a new detail.

"...That..." Uranus was speechless. "...You mean... it could take that power from EVERYONE?"

"I hate to say it, but that possibility chance is too high." Kuro concluded his theory.

"So the CPUs' sacrifices were for NOTHING?" Famitsu screamed in disbelief. "The Deity of Sins is still out there, and we have NO CPUs to protect us!"

"It wasn't for nothing, though. From what I found out, there has been no big problems until a few weeks before my arrival." Kuro tried to calm the reporter down. "However... to be honest, IF this is the same Deity of Sins, then WHY didn't she just take over Gamindustri already?"

"...What are you implying?" Uranus asked, slightly concerned of what Kuro was going to say.

"...Its host...it couldn't be..." Kuro started connecting the dots together. "...No, maybe I'm just too pessimistic."

"If you have anything, voice it out." Uranus asked again, a little louder.

"...I'm going to assume some things, but I need more solid evidences, so for now I will keep it to myself." Kuro shook his head. "Anyway, I still need to know something. Where was Gehaburn originally from?"

"That... is something we didn't actually know." Uranus admitted. "I just happened to find it... no..." She realized. "Could it be that... it's made by Deity of Sins itself?"

"That's a high possibility. Or it could be a fragment of something else..." Kuro wasn't too sure when he replied. "This is bad. If it actually got a grip on that weapon..."

The whole castle suddenly shook up, causing Famitsu to fall in the floor in surprise, while Kuro managed to maintain his balance. Uranus looked around the room then said: "Strange... even with the hailstorm, this place shouldn't be shaken that easily."

Pulling Famitsu up on her feet, Kuro concluded: "I guess that's enough for now. I might return for another talk. Thank you for hearing me out."

"It should be me thanking you." Uranus nodded with a smile.

...

"Um... those weren't there before, right?" Kuro asked his companion uncertainly.

"Um...no?" The reporter replied, as confused as him.

After exiting the last room, they went back to a hall to see cracks on the walls everywhere. No monsters were on sight, so they presumed that they fled away. Both drew their weapons as they got closer and examined the cracks...

"Definitely not nature's wraths." Kuro concluded. He started looking around to see if any of the monsters were around while his grip on his scissors tightened. "Famitsu, be on guard. We might be dealing with an A-rank monster."

"Kuro... are you sure that there's only one?" Alerted by her frightened voice, Kuro turned back to see Famitsu pointing towards a different hall, just in time for a massive colliding sound echoed through the castle. Not bothered by that, Kuro reached to the corner and poked his head out of it... only to immediately retract back as a huge debris was thrown towards him. Once knowing that it's safe to do that again, Kuro poked out... and saw said monsters starting to head to him...

X.X "Of...course." That's all Kuro could say before running back to Famitsu and pulling her away, just in time the monsters crashed through the walls, nearly crushing them if they didn't act fast. "We're NOT going to face them head-on! Let's run to the top of this castle!"

"Don't need to tell me twice!" The reporter shouted back in fear.

Then, Kuro threw her up to the air before dodged to the right to avoid two yellow slime orbs blasting from their back. She managed to land on her feet as the two keep running, not wasting their time to turn their heads back. Though, in one moment, Kuro had to stop and used String Formation that covered the whole hall to block a massive fireball blasting to them. The two then reached the stairway of the castle, and Kuro decided to increase the gravity behind him right before the monsters could reach them. When the monsters stepped on the cursed area, the ground gave away and they fell down to the lower floor of the castle.

Pausing on one of the stone steps, Famitsu took a moment to calm her breath. "That was close..."

=.= "We're not out of danger yet!" Kuro was not so relaxed as he started pulling her running again, earning a gasp of surprise from her. The mask turned X.X as he said: "Those things can jump extremely high!"

"Wait! How could they do that? They are..." The whole castle suddenly shook up, interrupting her question.

"One of them could expand itself, damn it!" Kuro nearly forgot that.

After about five second, when the duo have run up about a floor, they looked down to see one of them being extremely huge as it used its front paws to grab on the wall and climb up after them. Once a while, it blasted fireballs out of its mouth, causing the duo to try to avoid them while advancing on top. Due to the attacks and the castle constantly shaking, Kuro and Famitsu had a hard time trying to reach the top...

After a whole minute of running, Kuro decided it to be enough and carried the girl up bridal-style, causing her to yelp in surprise. "Hey! Put me down!"

"After this!" Calling strings everywhere, he started stepping up on them to go up faster, as he commanded the strings to assist him in pushing him up. Occasionally when he missed a step, he commanded the strings to gather and create a spider-like web so he could fall on it and bounce back up. Though, that sacrificed the strings' sharpness, and the monster easily snapped them with one swing.

Eventually, Kuro bounced up through a window and out to one of the turrets' top and landed on his feet, then gently but quickly put Famitsu down. The roof of the castle then blew up by a barrage of fireballs, and the monster emerged from the smoke and roared up, shaking the whole area around them. The duo had to cover their ears in order to not get a tinnitus, as they watched the monster started raising its arms up and aimed its knuckles to the duo. Kuro and Famitsu immediately dodged to the side to avoid the attack, and saw one big part of the wall gone after the punch. Famitsu grimaced and asked: "What can we do!? That thing is way too big!"

O.O "Gravity!" Kuro declared. "We have to minimize its size, then let it fall to its own death!" He then pulled his revolvers out and aimed at its face. "Now we have a better space to fight, let's end it here!"

"So that's why! Got it!" Pulling out her weapon, which was a lobster of all things, the reporter ran in a separate way as they dodged another punch. Famitsu then ran on its arm and aimed to hit its head. The monster quickly retracted its arm, but it's not enough to stop Famitsu from jumping on its head and smacking its head continuously. That seemed to hurt it a little as it roared up in pain, then it grabbed Famitsu and threw her away. Thankfully Kuro saw it coming, so he has already covered the whole area with soft strings, thus avoiding Famitsu from falling out of the castle as she landed on a bunch safely. He then unleashed his bullets to the monster's face, causing it to cover its face with its left hand while using its right to try to hit him, though he didn't stop moving so none were a threat to him. Although, he had to avoid going too near of a turret, otherwise the monster could smash it and let the crumble crush him. Soon Famitsu returned to the fight and used her skills to hit it from afar, though it would take a while.

...

"Any better ideas, Kuro!?" Famitsu shouted through her panting. The two have fought the monster for at least ten minutes already, and yet it seemed to not weaken after their attacks.

=.= "...I underestimated... that one... we're going to need a certain plumber, and a certain star if we seriously want some real damage."

After Kuro shot its eyes, which somehow didn't destroy them, the monster roared in pain while closing its eyes, so the duo had some time to hide inside one of the destroyed turrets, giving them a small time to discuss their plans.

"What kind of plumbers could defeat that thing? A Titan one?" Famitsu asked back in disbelief.

Sensing danger, Kuro grabbed Famitsu's shoulder and pushed her down that nearly making her face touch the floor, just in time the paw of the monster destroyed the half top of the turrets. "...Your phone still works?"

"I'm not going to call whoever plumber you have in your head!" The reporter found it extremely pointless.

"That was just a joke. Call someone from Basilicom and tell them to bring as many Ice mages hunters as possible, and..." They then saw the shadow of the monster towering over them. "Do it quick. I'm running out of Darkness."

* * *

Location: Lowee's Basilicom

"Here are the materials." IF spreaded the objects in the requests she has taken over the table. She then turned her head to the right and said to the person next to her: "You guys seriously used too many magic stones."

"Sorry, but you know that we rely much on magic, right?" Aqua, the Healing Dragon, smiled apologetically as she turned in a different quest.

"I understand. But try to..." Her phone suddenly rang up, causing her to pull it out. "Oh, sorry. I have a call." Though, her smile faltered a bit when she saw who's calling. "Seriously? Another paparazzi already sniffed us out?"

"You girls are popular, you know. Combining with your new companion as well." Aqua giggled again.

"Yeah, I know." She pressed the green button and answered: "Famitsu, you better not..."

"HELP!" Even without the speaker on, the reporter's scream drew everyone's attention to the Guild agent. "Kuro, aim at its horns! IF, a freaking turtle with the size of the one in Planeptune appeared! LAN Castle, quick!" The phone then abruptly ended.

"..." IF closed her phone, and then let out a deep and long sigh. "...I'm going to chain him up. Why did he always find troubles by himself?"

"Sounds like a certain CPU." Aqua smiled awkwardly.

"Worse. We chained her so she would have to finish her work before running away. If we have to do so again, that's to prevent him from charging into dangers." She then turned to the secretary and asked: "So, can I borrow some hunters to save some friends of ours?"

...

Half an hour later. Location: LAN Castle

IF facepalmed as she saw the state of the dungeon on sight. Currently she's on one of the battleships, which was made to deal with threats like the one in Planeptune months ago. "I... have nothing else to say to him... And why is he here in the first place? I thought he wanted to have a day-off today?"

"Shouldn't we focus on dealing with that first?" Aqua pointed to the monster which was still destroying the castle. "And how wasn't the dungeon gone already?"

"Probably Kuro was trying to let it hit the air." IF deadpanned. "Aqua, help me getting close to the castle, please."

"No problem." Aqua utilized a spell, and moment later, an ice dragon appeared and awaited for its summoner's order. "I'm going with you as well. It's faster to save both of them."

"Thank you." IF replied gratefully.

Once they're on the dragon's back, it flew up and headed to the castle. When they're close to the string cage, the strings disappeared so they could get through. Aqua ordered the dragon to circle around to find the survivors. After a few seconds, the hunters spotted the ones they needed to save trying to hide themselves behind a broken wall... just in time for the bombardment started and hit a spot next to them, blasting them away off the castle. The dragon quickly rushed to them to catch them, though Kuro already grabbed Famitsu and used his strings to break their fall. Both of the dragon riders sighed in relief that the two were safe... for now. The survivor duo decided to just lay on the strings since they have seen Aqua and IF heading to them.

When the dragon reached them, IF jumped on the strings and grabbed Kuro's collar and pulled him up so his face was on the same level as hers. "You idiot! Why did you have to lie to us like that!? Compa was worried after that she heard you were fighting here!"

X.X "I didn't lie, okay? Mina said that there were no monsters spotted, so I thought there were only weak ones in there!"

"That's not how you called 'a day off'!" IF shouted at his face. "I swear, I'm going to chain you up tomorrow so you wouldn't do reckless things like this!"

T.T "Please don't."

IF then turned to Famitsu who smiled awkwardly. "And you. Why are you with him?"

"Well, I wanted to interview him..." She's interrupted when an explosion occurred near them.

"Everyone, get on. We need to get out of here." Aqua advised.

"Okay. Get on the dragon and..."

"My apology, but not now." Suddenly Kuro yanked his collar out of IF's grip, and flung himself back to the castle with prepared strings, much to everyone's surprise.

"WHAT THE HELL KURO!?" IF screamed at the person's direction as she tried to rush to him, but then remembered that she's on a thin string, literally. "GODDESS DAMN IT! Aqua, get me close to the castle. Once I'm in, get Famitsu out and return to the ship."

"You can't just go in without..."

"It's my responsibility to look after him! I will get him out of there before the place falls!"

* * *

Location: LAN castle's underground

'Damn it Pinkie, how did you fall off my bag?' Quickly jumping down the hole below the monster without it noticing, Kuro went on a search to find the pink Dogoo. 'I swear, if that other monster got her...' He nearly went on a rampage as he searched every corner he saw...

"Freaking stop at once!" Kuro did so as he heard IF's voice behind him. "Why did you need to head into danger again!? We just literally got you out!" Kuro turned back just in time for the girl to grab his collar and shake his body furiously. "You better have a good damn reason to do so, or I will literally drag you back!"

"Pinkie was missing during the fight." Kuro explained. "Also, there's another monster down here, as dangerous as the one on top of us. Even if we escaped this place, those monsters could get out and rampage at everywhere."

"Have you forgotten what happened in Leanbox!? What if you found Trick here? That one was a CFW for no reasons!"

"Like I said, I lost Pinkie during the fight. I will return once I find her, okay?"

"What's so important about that Dogoo that you have to risk your life finding it?!" IF was really irritated at this point.

"If I couldn't even protect a small Dogoo, how would you expect me to help protecting this world? She is the first unharmed lifeform I met when I arrived in this world, and I'm not going to abandon her that easily." Kuro responded back, no intentions of getting back soon.

The area around them shook once more. Seeing that Kuro's not planning to return soon, IF sighed and released her grip on his collar. "The MOMENT we find the Dogoo, we're out of here."

"Loud and clear."

While she really wanted to drag him out of the dungeon, IF knew that he wouldn't just risk doing something that he knew he couldn't do. That Dogoo must have triggered something inside him that drove him to find it. Whatever it was... it should be reasonable, or else.

...

She then reached the room with the coffin, where she and Nepgear found Gehaburn. She grimaced as the memories returned, as she wished that they would have never discovered the blade. However, currently she's in a difficult situation, and...

"You picked a strange day to return." Unsheathing her qatars in surprise, IF turned to the coffin to see a transparent figure appear over the object. "What do you want to seek more than the blade?"

"...Um, hello there." IF was not sure if she should ask her or not. "Do you happen to see a small pink blob running around?" Before the figure could answer, Pinkie emerged from inside of the coffin as she jumped out and snuggled into IF's body, causing her to slightly stumble back because of the force. "Woah! You were hiding there?"

"That one was with the man arriving here not long ago... I believe he's a friend of yours, if the Dogoo reacted to you like that." Uranus calmly said.

"Well... the one with a black hoodie and a mask, may I ask?" IF asked back, which earned her a nod. "Yep, that's Kuro. Thanks for looking after the Dogoo, he was looking for it after he found out that it dropped out of his bag."

"It's at least I could do after he showed me our mistakes." Uranus replied solemnly.

"Your... mistakes?" IF was confused.

"I am Uranus, one of the CPUs from the past."

"... You are a CPU?" IF asked in surprise. "I thought all CPUs vanish after, well, they die?"

"Yes...at least, that's how you human see it. Some CPUs would vanish, but some lingered near the Sharicite in each nation. Myself, however, chose to stay here, considering this is where people gave me a place to rest after I sealed Deity of Sins in the past."

"...Wait. Then why didn't you appear before us when we took Gehaburn?"

"You didn't really call for me, remember?"

"...Ah, right. Well, it's nice knowing you." Retracting her qatars, IF grabbed the Dogoo out of her shoulder and started running out...

"One last thing, miss." The agent stopped and turned her head back. "If Deity of Sins is really back... don't seek for Gehaburn again. It won't work again."

"...Thanks for the advice." IF replied and continued rushing out.

"...So they has noticed." Uranus said to herself. "But ONLY this Kuro person was suspicious that DoS might have something more... 'its host'... he might be the key to defeat Deity of Sins, once and for all..."


	11. Chapter 11

"...In the future, ALWAYS remind us to have one of us following you."

=.= "Please no. You already have your own problems."

"Then don't create more. If not, THIS happens."

After regrouping with Kuro, IF has given the pink blob back to him, who happily accepted the pink blob then gave her a quick hug much to her embarrassment. The two then started trying to find an exit, only for the freaking turtle to trash the whole castle that collapsed on top of them. Thankfully Kuro used String Formation that blocked the debris falling on them. However, moments later the floor they're standing gave in, and the trio (Pinkie has been put back into the bag) fell to the lower part of the dungeon, with the debris falling around them and blocking their way out.

While they knew that there would be an underground road down here, but they couldn't risk breaking the walls around them senselessly since they might actually die if the whole castle fell on top of them. IF also tried to call for some helps, but her phone signal was blocked.

Basically they're stuck in one place before the rescue could come and find them.

"Urgh, this sucks!" IF exclaimed loudly. She then pointed her right index finger towards Kuro's face and shouted: "You! Give me a reason, or I will force you to leave that Dogoo in here!"

=.= "Don't put my fault on her. She did nothing..."

"THAT ONE is HOW we're in this situation! If that blob wasn't with us, we didn't have to return here, and we didn't have to be nearby ANY dangers like this at all!" Frustrated by Kuro's reckless actions, the Agent couldn't contain her anger and shouted directly at his face, or rather his mask. "And YOU! We're ALL in danger no matter the time! Defeating one or two monsters won't help that much, even if they're the dangerous ones! That's why we have to go as a group to minimize the casualties!"

After that section, IF took a small moment to steady her breath. It's been a while she has released her stress in this way. It's both satisfying and then regretting after her mind's clear. Looking back to Kuro, who surprisingly didn't take any reactions to her shouting. IF raised her eyebrow and asked again: "So, ready to answer my question?"

"..." The only male then sat down and leaned his back on the wall, while pulling Pinkie out of the bag and hugging the blob in his arms. He then gestured IF to sit down as well. Since they couldn't escape and she felt a little tired after that shouting, she followed. Once she's comfortable, the mask responded: "I have answered that before, but I will repeat it again. If I couldn't protect Pinkie, then I'm not strong enough to help you. When I arrived... the Graveyard was filled with so much negative energy that I could compare it to where I died. Even Jonathan..." He slowly patted the Dogoo which nudged into his hand happily. "But her? I was surprised at how... pure her soul is."

"Sorry, but you must have low standard to define 'pure'." IF deadpanned. "Those things are a constant pain to us if they go on hordes."

"Yes, I have heard that from other female hunters." His head nodded. "However..." He hesitated for a second. "...Anyway, Pinkie acts only because of her own interest, not affected by my choices, or any others' choices. That's the 'pure' part I want to talk about. She followed me because she knew that she would be safe around me..."

"That sounds like i...she's using you." IF planned to call Pinkie 'it' again, but she decided to follow Kuro's example.

"I know. But, that's everything's first instinct, the need to survive, and the need to live by all means. If she could keep it like that... then I'm glad."

After that, the area drowned in silence, except the small purring from the blob. IF watched the affection of the world's foreigner giving to one of the monsters in this world. By now, she's getting more confused at how Kuro worked, but... given by how he's 'loving' the Dogoo, it could just be him being lonely... 'Wait, what am I thinking just now?'

Seconds turned into minutes... and no signs of any unusual activities around them.

"Hey..." Kuro turned to IF. "I'm sorry for saying those harsh things to you. But, we're low on manpower, and you're the only one that could help dealing with those specific monsters. I know it's selfish from us, but we need you to... not harm yourself further than you already have suffered. You can blame me..."

"I won't." He interrupted her words. "I know that you're relying on me for your safety. You gave me a purpose to fight for, so I can't let you down. After the fight with Magic, I won't let my guard down that easily. Though, it's partly a reason to temporarily forget her." He pointed towards the blob in his arms.

IF tried to find something else to say, but ended up with nothing for a few seconds... then, she heard a very small sound coming from Kuro, under the mask. Though, she couldn't tell what it was. "Did you say something?"

o.o "Nothing." That's the mask answering.

Given by his body language, the Agent could tell that it's something, but she decided not to dwell into it...

One of her phones rang up, and immediately she tapped the call button. "Miss IF, where are you two? We have killed that turtle but we couldn't find you."

"Oh thank Goddesses!" The Agent was glad that the fight was over, and the one calling her was Aqua. "Yeah, we have fallen pretty far down. We didn't dare to do anything since we might end up breaking something that would let the whole damn castle to fall on us. You must be near us to get the signal through!"

"Okay, you stay right there. Everyone, start looking around..." Then, the phone turned off. The Mage Hunter was probably telling everyone to find the surrounding areas to find them.

"...About two floors atop of us." Kuro suddenly spoke, as his right pinky twitched.

"Two floors... WAIT! You can figure out where we are?"

"It's not that convenient, IF. I just spread my strings everywhere, and one of the hunters happened to stumble into one. I took a small calculation to find out how far the sensation has travelled."

"...What about your Shadow teleportation thing?"

"Do I know where the shadows could be?"

"...Fair point."

* * *

Afternoon. Basilicom. Oracle's office

"Um... Miss IF..."

"I did say it before, right? Don't try to change my mind."

"But Iffy, you made him look like a dangerous criminal..."

"Well, at some points, I might have broken some rules in her Law book, Compa."

About a few minutes after the call, the hunters have found and saved the duo and the Dogoo out of their prison. Then, when they're escorted back, IF asked for a long rope and tied Kuro up, much to everyone's surprise. And she personally watched after him so he wouldn't dare escaping on his own. That state wasn't changed even when they returned to the Basilicom.

Lowee's Oracle decided to not say anymore about it, and returned back to the main topic: "With your help, we have defeated the dangerous monsters in our nation... or at least, one of them. While you two were stuck underground, we didn't encounter any slime monster Famitsu has described. But, we found this..." She pointed towards an eye-like device on the table. "If it's true, then it must be a part of the monster."

"Then what killed it?" Kuro asked in confusion. "The only reason you couldn't find the slime because this core is no longer functioned. But this kind of monster wouldn't go down that easily."

"You mean someone was there without us noticing?" IF gave out a theory.

"Doubtful... wait, Uranus might... no. It wouldn't make sense either."

"Wait, mister Kuro. Did you just say Uranus?" Mina asked in surprise. "As in, the CPU from previous generations? How did you know about her?"

"Fairy tales, elsewhere." =.= "I know some of them might be exaggerated, but even that would hide something from the truth."

"Your previous experiences with curses came in handy, huh?" IF shook her head left and right. "Also, she warned to not try to find Gehaburn. I wouldn't even want to do so in the first place."

"On the bright side..."

"And why were there two of them?" Kuro interrupted Compa. "If it's the case, then four monsters were already dealt with... but then, it couldn't be THAT easily. What could draw the monsters into this land? What about Lastation?"

The office turned silence after hearing it. 'All monsters have been defeated' was a very good situation. However, that left the last nation in question. How could the people have avoided one of the monsters attacking them? Or, if looking in a different way, did Alpha Team miss something? Could it be more than one of the unique eggs in the Graveyard? Or... something worse?

"We need to contact Kei immediately." Mina then decided. "Thank you for your help. You can return to your room to rest, or enjoy the city at night..."

"Do I look like I could do the latter?" Kuro joked, which earned him a whack to the head from the Agent.

"You brought it to yourself."

* * *

Nighttime

"Damn late overwork..." Slumbering towards her bed, IF fell face-down to it, feeling her strength drained away. "And this morning as well... damn you for bringing more work to me, Kuro..."

She then flipped herself up and she stared at the ceiling of her room, thinking about what happened recently. "...But, thanks to him, we have suffered less damage, even no casualties. At least that's something..." She then pouted and continued: "But why couldn't he be any generic male Hunter who has some sort of legit fears? Dealing with that is WAY easier than him!" After that, she ranted even more about the recklessness the person has committed, and how she hated trying to pull him out of the dangers so many times despite she fully knew that he wouldn't die...again.

After her ranting section, IF stopped and took a deep breath. "Calm down, calm down... As long as he behaves... oh who am I kidding?" Well that deep breath didn't work well enough. Slightly irritated, she decided to cool herself off by having a nice night bath...

If she didn't notice the pink blob trying to push through the door to get into her room. Sighing, the Agent headed to the door and helped the Dogoo getting in, and saw Pinkie jumping towards a nearby chair. "Shouldn't you be around Kuro to cheer him up? He seemed pretty down when..."

"I want to talk to you."

An unknown voice suddenly spoke up, causing IF to draw out her qatars and look everywhere for the source. "Who is that? Show yourself!"

"It's me! I'm here!" That girlish voice... IF tried to look into the dark corners... "Look at the chair!" That nearly snapped her head directly to the location, only to see the Dogoo bouncing up and down. "Here, here!"

"...I'm getting tired, am I not?" IF shook her head once. "There's no way that blob just spoke..."

"Hey, that's mean!" The girl watched the blob showing some... sort of... angry expression with its... eyes? "I just got to be able to speak!"

After hearing that, IF had no choices but to accept that, the blob was indeed talking to her. "Fine... But why are you here?"

"Well..." The blob stopped bouncing. "I can't say this to Kuro, so..." Pinkie then waited for IF to come and sit at the bed to continue. "It's about the slime monster... I saw who killed it."

"Really?" IF was a little surprised. "Then why didn't you speak up?"

"I was told to not let Kuro know that I can speak now, yet." Pinkie confessed.

"...Was that really necessary?" IF was suspicious. Who was this person, and how did he escape with no one noticing?

"Because... he looked just like Kuro!"

That dropped the room into a cold silence. And when IF could find her voice: "Kuro was the one..."

"No no no! I said he looked like him, but that's not Kuro!" The Dogoo bounced again. "At least, he didn't look dead!"

"...So basically someone looking alike Kuro. Not surprising, though, maybe he's Kuro's counterpart or something." IF theorized due to her chuunibyou mind, not noticing how TRUE it was. "Did he say something?"

"Aside from telling me not to tell to Kuro, nothing. He just... disappeared, after telling me to keep it from Kuro."

"...Just that?" IF raised her eyebrows. "Then, how could you speak?"

"Um... I don't know. I just did?" Pinkie replied uncertainly as the blob wiggled in place.

Rubbing her temples, IF let out another sigh. "Just another mystery. Great."

"I have something else to say..." Pinkie started.

"There's still more?" IF asked, not very enthusiastic about the next news.

"Um... Can you please be nicer to Kuro?"

"...What?" IF was confused for a moment before remembering her conversation with him back under LAN Castle. "He brought it to himself. That's me being generous already to apologize..."

"He cried during it." The Dogoo made the best 'frown' expression she could mutter with her 'always happy-go-lucky' face.

"...We're talking about the same person, right? Kuro cried?" IF retorted back. "Please, he didn't even fear death. What could have scared him?"

"He's scared that he might lose you all." That reply from the pink blob caused IF's cheek to slightly burn up. "Once in a while, after the requests, he would return to his room and waited for everyone to go to sleep before silently shredding tears. Sometimes he would whisper to me, through the mask, about how he misses his family, how he wants to return to his normal life. But he couldn't abandon you at all. His human side forces him to never think about that."

"..." IF was speechless, and she re-thought about the fights after he appeared... While she thought that Kuro would just fight with them to 'ensure their survival', which was true at some point, she didn't think about how he felt during the time... he never said anything about his family, but after what Pinkie just said, he must be worried about them... though, this was not his duty to... he's just a foreigner, right? He could just... leave...

"And besides, he seems to have some interests in you girls..."

That one line changed the atmosphere in the room completely. From slightly sad to extremely embarrassed, IF's face heated up as her eyes turned O.O for a long moment.

"I saw him many things gazing at you girls a lot while you're not looking..." The Dogoo got a little off-track when speaking about this. "Well, I'm not sure what he would think about you, since he wears the mask all the time..."

"STOP!" IF shouted, interrupting the Dogoo as she put her hands up on her face to hide the red color on her entire face. "Why did you change the subject like that?! We were talking about..."

Suddenly someone knocked on the door, followed by Kuro's voice: "IF, are you in there? Have you seen Pinkie?"

"NO!" IF unconsciously shouted up, before recognizing who's speaking. Then she registered the question and re-answered: "Wait, yes. It's here."

"Can I come in?"

"Um... sure?" IF replied, not even sure herself if she would let him go in or not.

The door then gently opened, and Kuro walked into the room. "Good evening, IF." He greeted the girl first, then his face turned to the Dogoo who kept bouncing in place. "Why are you here, Pinkie? It's already late at night. Don't go and bother others like that." He lightly scolded the blob, who kept bouncing in place, albeit with slower pace. Shaking his head, he grabbed the blob and headed back to the exit. "Sorry IF for the intrusion. See you next morni..."

"Kuro, do you hate us?" Stopping his hands right in front of the doorknob, Kuro heard the surprising question from the Agent. "Ever since you appeared, we have asked you to do such ridiculously hard quests that even the CPUs would have some struggles to do. I know that you don't like expressing your feeling..."

"I don't." Kuro replied midway. "...Well, not just everyone. Magic is one of the people I would never like, for sure. Also, if it was me, I would also use any helps necessary for my own survival. Don't feel bad about it."

"But..."

"And you also have given me a place to stay, so I can't complain." Kuro turned his head so IF could see the ^.^ face. "I would like to do some small quests tomorrow. You can join if you want." And with that, Kuro opened the door and exited, leaving the girl in her room.

"...I must be very tired. Dogoo couldn't speak." Rubbing her temples, IF then stood up and headed to the bathroom. "Better took that shower before anyone else could interrupt it."


End file.
